File manager integration with virtualization in an information management system, including user control and storage management of virtual machines

ABSTRACT

A file manager application that integrates with virtualization substantially enables end-user control and storage management of virtual machines (VMs). The file manager application, which may operate as a plug-in for a legacy file manager executing on a user&#39;s client computing device, may comprise: displaying the VMs associated with the user, including their respective properties; enabling viewing/browsing of information about storage management operations for a VM such as backups and/or archiving, including files associated with the VM and searching and filtering criteria; control features that enable the user to control existing VMs, such as shut down, restart/activate/power-on, suspend, and/or re-configure, and also perform storage management of a VM and/or its associated files, such as create snapshot, back up, archive, restore VM from secondary storage, restore and overwrite VM, restore file(s)/folder(s) to user&#39;s client computing device, restore file(s)/folder(s) to a production VM in primary storage, etc.; control features that enable the user to provision additional VMs, such as create a new VM, create a clone VM, configure a VM, etc.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of the assignee's U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 61/876,883, filed Sep. 12, 2013 (attorney docketno. COMMV.184PR; applicant docket no. 100.360.USP1.160).

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

Any and all applications, if any, for which a foreign or domesticpriority claim is identified in the Application Data Sheet of thepresent application are hereby incorporated by reference under 37 CFR1.57.

BACKGROUND

Businesses worldwide recognize the commercial value of their data andseek reliable, cost-effective ways to protect the information stored ontheir computer networks while minimizing impact on productivity.Protecting information is often part of a routine process that isperformed within an organization. A company might back up criticalcomputing systems such as databases, file servers, web servers, and soon as part of a daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance schedule. Thecompany may similarly protect computing systems used by each of itsemployees, such as those used by an accounting department, marketingdepartment, engineering department, and so forth.

Given the rapidly expanding volume of data under management, companiesalso continue to seek innovative techniques for managing data growth, inaddition to protecting data. For instance, companies often implementmigration techniques for moving data to lower cost storage over time anddata reduction techniques for reducing redundant data, pruning lowerpriority data, etc. Enterprises also increasingly view their stored dataas a valuable asset. Along these lines, customers are looking forsolutions that not only protect and manage, but also leverage theirdata. For instance, solutions providing data analysis capabilities,information management, improved data presentation and access features,and the like, are in increasing demand.

Virtualization and the use of virtual machines have introduced a newlevel of complexity in enterprises, because the virtual machinesthemselves as well as their associated files must be protected,including back-up operations and archiving as needed.

SUMMARY

In an information management system that comprises virtual machines (or“VMs”), it is advantageous to provide users with enhanced control overand information about the virtual machines they are associated with,e.g., the virtual machines under the control of a given user. Thetechnology according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventionprovides control and information via a file manager application thatexecutes on a client computing device. A host computing device may hostor comprise one or more virtual machines associated with the user. Otherassociated virtual machines may reside on other host computing devicesin the information management system. Additional virtual machines mayhave been previously archived outside the primary (productionenvironment) storage domain, and reside in the secondary storagesubsystem. The technology according to the exemplary embodiment providesthe user with control over any and all of these virtual machines andtheir associated files.

The exemplary embodiment comprises a file manager application that maybe presented to the user as an integrated application, e.g., as aplug-in to a legacy file manager application(s) on the user's clientcomputing device. Alternatively, the file manager application may bepresented and may operate apart from legacy file management.Accordingly, the exemplary file manager application presents a userinterface that enables the user to manage existing and/or new virtualmachines, and comprises at least one, and preferably more, of thefollowing functionality:

-   -   displaying for the user some or all the virtual machines        associated with the user, including their respective properties        and/or parameters;    -   enabling the user to view/browse, for each virtual machine, data        that is associated with storage management operations such as a        back-up and/or archive operation for the respective virtual        machine, including files (which may be organized into folders)        associated with the virtual machine, including searching and        filtering criteria for one or more virtual machines;    -   control features that enable the user to control and administer        existing virtual machines, such as shut down,        restart/activate/power-on, suspend, and/or re-configure a        virtual machine, and further enable the user to perform storage        management of a virtual machine and/or its associated files,        such as create a snapshot, back up, archive, replicate, restore        VM from secondary storage, restore and overwrite VM, restore        file(s)/folder(s) to user's client computing device, restore        file(s)/folder(s) to a production VM that is associated with the        user, etc.;    -   control features that enable the user to provision additional        virtual machines, such as create a new VM, create a clone VM,        configure a newly-created VM, etc.

Illustratively, a file manager application window displays for the userthe virtual machines associated with the user, whether the virtualmachine is in production, backed-up, or archived—or anywhere in theinformation management system. Preferably, the display comprises anindicator, e.g., icon, tab, drop-down menu entry, sub-window, etc., foreach virtual machine.

Illustratively, a file manager application window enables the user todrill down further for each virtual machine and view data associatedwith storage management operation(s), such as a back-up and/or anarchive operation for the respective virtual machine, as wellinformation about virtual machines that are only present inproduction/primary storage. In regard to virtual machines that arerepresented in the secondary storage subsystem, e.g., have beenpreviously backed up and/or archived to the secondary storage subsystem,metadata is made viewable/browsable for each backed-up and archived fileassociated with the respective virtual machine. The exemplary filemanager application further enables a search or filtered search,including the functionality required to choose appropriate searchcriteria, etc. The exemplary file manager application obtains themetadata from an index available from a media agent that is responsiblefor backing up and/or archiving the respective virtual machine. Relevantmetadata may be obtained from any number of media agents in theinformation management system.

Illustratively, control features in the file manager application enablethe user to control and/or administer the existing virtual machines,e.g., activate a snapshot operation, create a clone, activate a back-upoperation, modify a parameter for the virtual machine, shut down avirtual machine. These control features further apply to files that areassociated with the respective virtual machine, e.g., search/filter,delete, etc., including scenarios where the files are organized intofolders.

Illustratively, control features in the file manager application enablethe user to provision new virtual machines, e.g., create a new virtualmachine, clone an existing virtual machine, configure features on a newvirtual machine, etc. Search and filter criteria described above applyto the newly provisioned virtual machines as well.

One advantage of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention isthat it substantially enables user self-service for virtual machinesthat are under the user's control. In contrast to previous systems,where virtual machine administration and provisioning are traditionallyviewed as administrative functions, e.g., under the purview of anInformation Technology (“IT”) department, the technology according tothe exemplary embodiment of the present invention gives the user theopportunity and functionality to perform analysis and self-service.Moreover, by providing information about archived virtual machines,i.e., no longer available in the primary storage subsystem, theexemplary embodiment enables a comprehensive view of the user's virtualmachine resources that is not otherwise available from previous toolsdirected only to primary storage and production systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1B is a detailed view of a primary storage device, a secondarystorage device, and some examples of primary data and secondary copydata.

FIG. 1C is a block diagram of an exemplary information management systemincluding a storage manager, one or more data agents, and one or moremedia agents.

FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating a scalable informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1E illustrates certain secondary copy operations according to anexemplary storage policy.

FIGS. 1F-1H are block diagrams illustrating suitable data structuresthat may be employed by the information management system.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating some salient portions of aninformation management system 200 comprising file manager integrationwith virtualization according to an illustrative embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary file managerapplication 201 and an exemplary set of virtual machines havingassociated files, in the context of the exemplary information managementsystem 200.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary display window of the exemplary filemanager application.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary flow chart comprising at least some ofthe functionality of the exemplary file manager application operatingwithin the exemplary information management system.

FIG. 5 depicts some additional detail of the functionality of block 406in the flow chart of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary flow chart comprising some of thefunctionality of the illustrative storage manager operating relative tothe exemplary file manager application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are discussed herein for controlling and interactingwith virtual machines. Examples of some such systems and methods aredescribed in further detail herein, e.g., with respect to FIGS. 2A-6. Itwill be appreciated that the virtual machine control and interactionfunctionality described herein may be implemented by or withininformation management systems such as those that will now be describedwith respect to FIGS. 1A-1H. As such, the componentry for implementingthe virtual machine control/interaction functionality can beincorporated into such information management systems.

Information Management System Overview

With the increasing importance of protecting and leveraging data,organizations simply cannot afford to take the risk of losing criticaldata. Moreover, runaway data growth and other modern realities makeprotecting and managing data an increasingly difficult task. There istherefore a need for efficient, powerful, and user-friendly solutionsfor protecting and managing data.

Depending on the size of the organization, there are typically many dataproduction sources which are under the purview of tens, hundreds, oreven thousands of employees or other individuals. In the past,individual employees were sometimes responsible for managing andprotecting their data. A patchwork of hardware and software pointsolutions has been applied in other cases. These solutions were oftenprovided by different vendors and had limited or no interoperability.

Certain embodiments described herein provide systems and methods capableof addressing these and other shortcomings of prior approaches byimplementing unified, organization-wide information management. FIG. 1Ashows one such information management system 100, which generallyincludes combinations of hardware and software configured to protect andmanage data and metadata, which is generated and used by the variouscomputing devices in information management system 100. The organizationthat employs the information management system 100 may be a corporationor other business entity, non-profit organization, educationalinstitution, household, governmental agency, or the like.

Generally, the systems and associated components described herein may becompatible with and/or provide some or all of the functionality of thesystems and corresponding components described in one or more of thefollowing U.S. patents and patent application publications assigned toCommVault Systems, Inc., each of which is hereby incorporated in itsentirety by reference herein:

-   U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, entitled “Modular Backup and Retrieval    System Used in Conjunction With a Storage Area Network”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,298, entitled “System And Method For Archiving    Objects In An Information Store”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, entitled “System and Method for Dynamically    Performing Storage Operations in a Computer Network”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 7,315,923, entitled “System And Method For Combining    Data Streams In Pipelined Storage Operations In A Storage Network”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, entitled “Hierarchical Systems and Methods    for Providing a Unified View of Storage Information”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,282, entitled “Hierarchical Backup and Retrieval    System”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, entitled “System and Methods for Performing    a Snapshot and for Restoring Data”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, entitled “System and Methods for Monitoring    Application Data in a Data Replication System”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,579, entitled “Metabase for Facilitating Data    Classification”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, entitled “Systems And Methods For Stored    Data Verification”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, entitled “Method and System for Offline    Indexing of Content and Classifying Stored Data”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,229,954, entitled “Managing Copies Of Data”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled “System And Method For Performing    Auxiliary Storage Operations”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,681, entitled “Data Object Store and Server for    a Cloud Storage Environment, Including Data Deduplication and Data    Management Across Multiple Cloud Storage Sites”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,177, entitled “Systems And Methods For    Management Of Virtualization Data”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652, entitled “Content-Aligned, Block-Based    Deduplication”;-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,578,120, entitled “Block-Level Single Instancing”;-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846, entitled “System and Method to    Support Single Instance Storage Operations”;-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2009/0319534, entitled “Application-Aware and    Remote Single Instance Data Management”;-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150818, entitled “Client-Side Repository in    a Networked Deduplicated Storage System”; and-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826, entitled “Distributed Deduplicated    Storage System”.

The information management system 100 can include a variety of differentcomputing devices. For instance, as will be described in greater detailherein, the information management system 100 can include one or moreclient computing devices 102 and secondary storage computing devices106.

Computing devices can include, without limitation, one or more:workstations, personal computers, desktop computers, or other types ofgenerally fixed computing systems such as mainframe computers andminicomputers. Other computing devices can include mobile or portablecomputing devices, such as one or more laptops, tablet computers,personal data assistants, mobile phones (such as smartphones), and othermobile or portable computing devices such as embedded computers, set topboxes, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable computers, etc. Computingdevices can include servers, such as mail servers, file servers,database servers, and web servers.

In some cases, a computing device includes virtualized and/or cloudcomputing resources. For instance, one or more virtual machines may beprovided to the organization by a third-party cloud service vendor. Or,in some embodiments, computing devices can include one or more virtualmachine(s) running on a physical host computing device (or “hostmachine”) operated by the organization. As one example, the organizationmay use one virtual machine as a database server and another virtualmachine as a mail server, both virtual machines operating on the samehost machine.

A virtual machine includes an operating system and associated virtualresources, and is hosted simultaneously with another operating system ona physical host computer (or host machine). A hypervisor (typicallysoftware, and also known in the art as a virtual machine monitor or avirtual machine manager or “VMM”) sits between the virtual machine andthe hardware of the physical host machine. One example of hypervisor asvirtualization software is ESX Server, by VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto,Calif.; other examples include Microsoft Virtual Server and MicrosoftWindows Server Hyper-V, both by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.,and Sun xVM by Oracle America Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. In someembodiments, the hypervisor may be firmware or hardware or a combinationof software and/or firmware and/or hardware.

The hypervisor provides to each virtual operating system virtualresources, such as a virtual processor, virtual memory, a virtualnetwork device, and a virtual disk. Each virtual machine has one or morevirtual disks. The hypervisor typically stores the data of virtual disksin files on the file system of the physical host machine, called virtualmachine disk files (in the case of VMware virtual servers) or virtualhard disk image files (in the case of Microsoft virtual servers). Forexample, VMware's ESX Server provides the Virtual Machine File System(VMFS) for the storage of virtual machine disk files. A virtual machinereads data from and writes data to its virtual disk much the same waythat an actual physical machine reads data from and writes data to anactual disk.

Examples of techniques for implementing information managementtechniques in a cloud computing environment are described in U.S. Pat.No. 8,285,681, which is incorporated by reference herein. Examples oftechniques for implementing information management techniques in avirtualized computing environment are described in U.S. Pat. No.8,307,177, also incorporated by reference herein.

The information management system 100 can also include a variety ofstorage devices, including primary storage devices 104 and secondarystorage devices 108, for example. Storage devices can generally be ofany suitable type including, without limitation, disk drives, hard-diskarrays, semiconductor memory (e.g., solid state storage devices),network attached storage (NAS) devices, tape libraries or othermagnetic, non-tape storage devices, optical media storage devices,DNA/RNA-based memory technology, combinations of the same, and the like.In some embodiments, storage devices can form part of a distributed filesystem. In some cases, storage devices are provided in a cloud (e.g., aprivate cloud or one operated by a third-party vendor). A storage devicein some cases comprises a disk array or portion thereof.

The illustrated information management system 100 includes one or moreclient computing device 102 having at least one application 110executing thereon, and one or more primary storage devices 104 storingprimary data 112. The client computing device(s) 102 and the primarystorage devices 104 may generally be referred to in some cases as aprimary storage subsystem 117. A computing device in an informationmanagement system 100 that has a data agent 142 installed and operatingon it is generally referred to as a client computing device 102 (or, inthe context of a component of the information management system 100simply as a “client”).

Depending on the context, the term “information management system” canrefer to generally all of the illustrated hardware and softwarecomponents. Or, in other instances, the term may refer to only a subsetof the illustrated components.

For instance, in some cases, the information management system 100generally refers to a combination of specialized components used toprotect, move, manage, manipulate, analyze, and/or process data andmetadata generated by the client computing devices 102. However, theinformation management system 100 in some cases does not include theunderlying components that generate and/or store the primary data 112,such as the client computing devices 102 themselves, the applications110 and operating system operating on the client computing devices 102,and the primary storage devices 104. As an example, “informationmanagement system” may sometimes refer to one or more of the followingcomponents and corresponding data structures: storage managers, dataagents, and media agents. These components will be described in furtherdetail below.

Client Computing Devices

There are typically a variety of sources in an organization that producedata to be protected and managed. As just one illustrative example, in acorporate environment such data sources can be employee workstations andcompany servers such as a mail server, a web server, a database server,a transaction server, or the like. In the information management system100, the data generation sources include the one or more clientcomputing devices 102.

The client computing devices 102 may include any of the types ofcomputing devices described above, without limitation, and in some casesthe client computing devices 102 are associated with one or more usersand/or corresponding user accounts, of employees or other individuals.

The information management system 100 generally addresses and handlesthe data management and protection needs for the data generated by theclient computing devices 102. However, the use of this term does notimply that the client computing devices 102 cannot be “servers” in otherrespects. For instance, a particular client computing device 102 may actas a server with respect to other devices, such as other clientcomputing devices 102. As just a few examples, the client computingdevices 102 can include mail servers, file servers, database servers,and web servers.

Each client computing device 102 may have one or more applications 110(e.g., software applications) executing thereon which generate andmanipulate the data that is to be protected from loss and managed. Theapplications 110 generally facilitate the operations of an organization(or multiple affiliated organizations), and can include, withoutlimitation, mail server applications (e.g., Microsoft Exchange Server),file server applications, mail client applications (e.g., MicrosoftExchange Client), database applications (e.g., SQL, Oracle, SAP, LotusNotes Database), word processing applications (e.g., Microsoft Word),spreadsheet applications, financial applications, presentationapplications, graphics and/or video applications, browser applications,mobile applications, entertainment applications, and so on.

The client computing devices 102 can have at least one operating system(e.g., Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, IBM z/OS, Linux, otherUnix-based operating systems, etc.) installed thereon, which may supportor host one or more file systems and other applications 110.

The client computing devices 102 and other components in informationmanagement system 100 can be connected to one another via one or morecommunication pathways 114. For example, a first communication pathway114 may connect (or communicatively couple) client computing device 102and secondary storage computing device 106; a second communicationpathway 114 may connect storage manager 140 and client computing device102; and a third communication pathway 114 may connect storage manager140 and secondary storage computing device 106, etc. (see, e.g., FIG. 1Aand FIG. 1C). The communication pathways 114 can include one or morenetworks or other connection types including one or more of thefollowing, without limitation: the Internet, a wide area network (WAN),a local area network (LAN), a Storage Area Network (SAN), a FibreChannel connection, a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) connection,a virtual private network (VPN), a token ring or TCP/IP based network,an intranet network, a point-to-point link, a cellular network, awireless data transmission system, a two-way cable system, aninteractive kiosk network, a satellite network, a broadband network, abaseband network, a neural network, a mesh network, an ad hoc network,other appropriate wired, wireless, or partially wired/wireless computeror telecommunications networks, combinations of the same or the like.The communication pathways 114 in some cases may also includeapplication programming interfaces (APIs) including, e.g., cloud serviceprovider APIs, virtual machine management APIs, and hosted serviceprovider APIs. The underlying infrastructure of communication paths 114may be wired and/or wireless, analog and/or digital, or any combinationthereof; and the facilities used may be private, public, third-partyprovided, or any combination thereof, without limitation.

Primary Data and Exemplary Primary Storage Devices

Primary data 112 according to some embodiments is production data orother “live” data generated by the operating system and/or applications110 operating on a client computing device 102. The primary data 112 isgenerally stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and is organizedvia a file system supported by the client computing device 102. Forinstance, the client computing device(s) 102 and correspondingapplications 110 may create, access, modify, write, delete, andotherwise use primary data 112. In some cases, some or all of theprimary data 112 can be stored in cloud storage resources (e.g., primarystorage device 104 may be a cloud-based resource).

Primary data 112 is generally in the native format of the sourceapplication 110. According to certain aspects, primary data 112 is aninitial or first (e.g., created before any other copies or before atleast one other copy) stored copy of data generated by the sourceapplication 110. Primary data 112 in some cases is created substantiallydirectly from data generated by the corresponding source applications110.

The primary storage devices 104 storing the primary data 112 may berelatively fast and/or expensive technology (e.g., a disk drive, ahard-disk array, solid state memory, etc.). In addition, primary data112 may be highly changeable and/or may be intended for relatively shortterm retention (e.g., hours, days, or weeks).

According to some embodiments, the client computing device 102 canaccess primary data 112 from the primary storage device 104 by makingconventional file system calls via the operating system. Primary data112 may include structured data (e.g., database files), unstructureddata (e.g., documents), and/or semi-structured data. Some specificexamples are described below with respect to FIG. 1B.

It can be useful in performing certain tasks to organize the primarydata 112 into units of different granularities. In general, primary data112 can include files, directories, file system volumes, data blocks,extents, or any other hierarchies or organizations of data objects. Asused herein, a “data object” can refer to both (1) any file that iscurrently addressable by a file system or that was previouslyaddressable by the file system (e.g., an archive file) and (2) a subsetof such a file (e.g., a data block).

As will be described in further detail, it can also be useful inperforming certain functions of the information management system 100 toaccess and modify metadata within the primary data 112. Metadatagenerally includes information about data objects or characteristicsassociated with the data objects. For simplicity herein, it is to beunderstood that, unless expressly stated otherwise, any reference toprimary data 112 generally also includes its associated metadata, butreferences to the metadata do not include the primary data.

Metadata can include, without limitation, one or more of the following:the data owner (e.g., the client or user that generates the data), thelast modified time (e.g., the time of the most recent modification ofthe data object), a data object name (e.g., a file name), a data objectsize (e.g., a number of bytes of data), information about the content(e.g., an indication as to the existence of a particular search term),user-supplied tags, to/from information for email (e.g., an emailsender, recipient, etc.), creation date, file type (e.g., format orapplication type), last accessed time, application type (e.g., type ofapplication that generated the data object), location/network (e.g., acurrent, past or future location of the data object and network pathwaysto/from the data object), geographic location (e.g., GPS coordinates),frequency of change (e.g., a period in which the data object ismodified), business unit (e.g., a group or department that generates,manages or is otherwise associated with the data object), aginginformation (e.g., a schedule, such as a time period, in which the dataobject is migrated to secondary or long term storage), boot sectors,partition layouts, file location within a file folder directorystructure, user permissions, owners, groups, access control lists[ACLs]), system metadata (e.g., registry information), combinations ofthe same or other similar information related to the data object.

In addition to metadata generated by or related to file systems andoperating systems, some of the applications 110 and/or other componentsof the information management system 100 maintain indices of metadatafor data objects, e.g., metadata associated with individual emailmessages. Thus, each data object may be associated with correspondingmetadata. The use of metadata to perform classification and otherfunctions is described in greater detail below.

Each of the client computing devices 102 are generally associated withand/or in communication with one or more of the primary storage devices104 storing corresponding primary data 112. A client computing device102 may be considered to be “associated with” or “in communication with”a primary storage device 104 if it is capable of one or more of: routingand/or storing data (e.g., primary data 112) to the particular primarystorage device 104, coordinating the routing and/or storing of data tothe particular primary storage device 104, retrieving data from theparticular primary storage device 104, coordinating the retrieval ofdata from the particular primary storage device 104, and modifyingand/or deleting data retrieved from the particular primary storagedevice 104.

The primary storage devices 104 can include any of the different typesof storage devices described above, or some other kind of suitablestorage device. The primary storage devices 104 may have relatively fastI/O times and/or are relatively expensive in comparison to the secondarystorage devices 108. For example, the information management system 100may generally regularly access data and metadata stored on primarystorage devices 104, whereas data and metadata stored on the secondarystorage devices 108 is accessed relatively less frequently.

Primary storage device 104 may be dedicated or shared. In some cases,each primary storage device 104 is dedicated to an associated clientcomputing device 102. For instance, a primary storage device 104 in oneembodiment is a local disk drive of a corresponding client computingdevice 102. In other cases, one or more primary storage devices 104 canbe shared by multiple client computing devices 102, e.g., via a networksuch as in a cloud storage implementation. As one example, a primarystorage device 104 can be a disk array shared by a group of clientcomputing devices 102, such as one of the following types of diskarrays: EMC Clariion, EMC Symmetrix, EMC Celerra, Dell EqualLogic, IBMXIV, NetApp FAS, HP EVA, and HP 3PAR.

The information management system 100 may also include hosted services(not shown), which may be hosted in some cases by an entity other thanthe organization that employs the other components of the informationmanagement system 100. For instance, the hosted services may be providedby various online service providers to the organization. Such serviceproviders can provide services including social networking services,hosted email services, or hosted productivity applications or otherhosted applications). Hosted services may include software-as-a-service(SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), application service providers(ASPs), cloud services, or other mechanisms for delivering functionalityvia a network. As it provides services to users, each hosted service maygenerate additional data and metadata under management of theinformation management system 100, e.g., as primary data 112. In somecases, the hosted services may be accessed using one of the applications110. As an example, a hosted mail service may be accessed via browserrunning on a client computing device 102. The hosted services may beimplemented in a variety of computing environments. In some cases, theyare implemented in an environment having a similar arrangement to theinformation management system 100, where various physical and logicalcomponents are distributed over a network.

Secondary Copies and Exemplary Secondary Storage Devices

The primary data 112 stored on the primary storage devices 104 may becompromised in some cases, such as when an employee deliberately oraccidentally deletes or overwrites primary data 112 during their normalcourse of work. Or the primary storage devices 104 can be damaged, lost,or otherwise corrupted. For recovery and/or regulatory compliancepurposes, it is therefore useful to generate copies of the primary data112. Accordingly, the information management system 100 includes one ormore secondary storage computing devices 106 and one or more secondarystorage devices 108 configured to create and store one or more secondarycopies 116 of the primary data 112 and associated metadata. Thesecondary storage computing devices 106 and the secondary storagedevices 108 may sometimes be referred to as a secondary storagesubsystem 118.

Creation of secondary copies 116 can help in search and analysis effortsand meet other information management goals, such as: restoring dataand/or metadata if an original version (e.g., of primary data 112) islost (e.g., by deletion, corruption, or disaster); allowingpoint-in-time recovery; complying with regulatory data retention andelectronic discovery (e-discovery) requirements; reducing utilizedstorage capacity; facilitating organization and search of data;improving user access to data files across multiple computing devicesand/or hosted services; and implementing data retention policies.

The client computing devices 102 access or receive primary data 112 andcommunicate the data, e.g., over one or more communication pathways 114,for storage in the secondary storage device(s) 108.

A secondary copy 116 can comprise a separate stored copy of applicationdata that is derived from one or more earlier-created, stored copies(e.g., derived from primary data 112 or another secondary copy 116).Secondary copies 116 can include point-in-time data, and may be intendedfor relatively long-term retention (e.g., weeks, months or years),before some or all of the data is moved to other storage or isdiscarded.

In some cases, a secondary copy 116 is a copy of application datacreated and stored subsequent to at least one other stored instance(e.g., subsequent to corresponding primary data 112 or to anothersecondary copy 116), in a different storage device than at least oneprevious stored copy, and/or remotely from at least one previous storedcopy. In some other cases, secondary copies can be stored in the samestorage device as primary data 112 and/or other previously storedcopies. For example, in one embodiment a disk array capable ofperforming hardware snapshots stores primary data 112 and creates andstores hardware snapshots of the primary data 112 as secondary copies116. Secondary copies 116 may be stored in relatively slow and/or lowcost storage (e.g., magnetic tape). A secondary copy 116 may be storedin a backup or archive format, or in some other format different thanthe native source application format or other primary data format.

In some cases, secondary copies 116 are indexed so users can browse andrestore at another point in time. After creation of a secondary copy 116representative of certain primary data 112, a pointer or other locationindicia (e.g., a stub) may be placed in primary data 112, or beotherwise associated with primary data 112 to indicate the currentlocation on the secondary storage device(s) 108 of secondary copy 116.

Since an instance of a data object or metadata in primary data 112 maychange over time as it is modified by an application 110 (or hostedservice or the operating system), the information management system 100may create and manage multiple secondary copies 116 of a particular dataobject or metadata, each representing the state of the data object inprimary data 112 at a particular point in time. Moreover, since aninstance of a data object in primary data 112 may eventually be deletedfrom the primary storage device 104 and the file system, the informationmanagement system 100 may continue to manage point-in-timerepresentations of that data object, even though the instance in primarydata 112 no longer exists.

For virtualized computing devices the operating system and otherapplications 110 of the client computing device(s) 102 may executewithin or under the management of virtualization software (e.g., a VMM),and the primary storage device(s) 104 may comprise a virtual diskcreated on a physical storage device. The information management system100 may create secondary copies 116 of the files or other data objectsin a virtual disk file and/or secondary copies 116 of the entire virtualdisk file itself (e.g., of an entire .vmdk file).

Secondary copies 116 may be distinguished from corresponding primarydata 112 in a variety of ways, some of which will now be described.First, as discussed, secondary copies 116 can be stored in a differentformat (e.g., backup, archive, or other non-native format) than primarydata 112. For this or other reasons, secondary copies 116 may not bedirectly useable by the applications 110 of the client computing device102, e.g., via standard system calls or otherwise without modification,processing, or other intervention by the information management system100.

Secondary copies 116 are also in some embodiments stored on a secondarystorage device 108 that is inaccessible to the applications 110 runningon the client computing devices 102 (and/or hosted services). Somesecondary copies 116 may be “offline copies,” in that they are notreadily available (e.g., not mounted to tape or disk). Offline copiescan include copies of data that the information management system 100can access without human intervention (e.g., tapes within an automatedtape library, but not yet mounted in a drive), and copies that theinformation management system 100 can access only with at least somehuman intervention (e.g., tapes located at an offsite storage site).

The Use of Intermediate Devices for Creating Secondary Copies

Creating secondary copies can be a challenging task. For instance, therecan be hundreds or thousands of client computing devices 102 continuallygenerating large volumes of primary data 112 to be protected. Also,there can be significant overhead involved in the creation of secondarycopies 116. Moreover, secondary storage devices 108 may be specialpurpose components, and interacting with them can require specializedintelligence.

In some cases, the client computing devices 102 interact directly withthe secondary storage device 108 to create the secondary copies 116.However, in view of the factors described above, this approach cannegatively impact the ability of the client computing devices 102 toserve the applications 110 and produce primary data 112. Further, theclient computing devices 102 may not be optimized for interaction withthe secondary storage devices 108.

Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system 100includes one or more software and/or hardware components which generallyact as intermediaries between the client computing devices 102 and thesecondary storage devices 108. In addition to off-loading certainresponsibilities from the client computing devices 102, theseintermediate components can provide other benefits. For instance, asdiscussed further below with respect to FIG. 1D, distributing some ofthe work involved in creating secondary copies 116 can enhancescalability.

The intermediate components can include one or more secondary storagecomputing devices 106 as shown in FIG. 1A and/or one or more mediaagents, which can be software modules operating on correspondingsecondary storage computing devices 106 (or other appropriate computingdevices). Media agents are discussed below (e.g., with respect to FIGS.1C-1E).

The secondary storage computing device(s) 106 can comprise any of thecomputing devices described above, without limitation. In some cases,the secondary storage computing device(s) 106 include specializedhardware and/or software componentry for interacting with the secondarystorage devices 108.

To create a secondary copy 116 involving the copying of data from theprimary storage subsystem 117 to the secondary storage subsystem 118,the client computing device 102 in some embodiments communicates theprimary data 112 to be copied (or a processed version thereof) to thedesignated secondary storage computing device 106, via the communicationpathway 114. The secondary storage computing device 106 in turn conveysthe received data (or a processed version thereof) to the secondarystorage device 108. In some such configurations, the communicationpathway 114 between the client computing device 102 and the secondarystorage computing device 106 comprises a portion of a LAN, WAN or SAN.In other cases, at least some client computing devices 102 communicatedirectly with the secondary storage devices 108 (e.g., via Fibre Channelor SCSI connections). In some other cases, one or more secondary copies116 are created from existing secondary copies, such as in the case ofan auxiliary copy operation, described in greater detail below.

Exemplary Primary Data and an Exemplary Secondary Copy

FIG. 1B is a detailed view showing some specific examples of primarydata stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and secondary copy datastored on the secondary storage device(s) 108, with other components inthe system removed for the purposes of illustration. Stored on theprimary storage device(s) 104 are primary data objects including wordprocessing documents 119A-B, spreadsheets 120, presentation documents122, video files 124, image files 126, email mailboxes 128 (andcorresponding email messages 129A-C), html/xml or other types of markuplanguage files 130, databases 132 and corresponding tables or other datastructures 133A-133C).

Some or all primary data objects are associated with correspondingmetadata (e.g., “Meta1-11”), which may include file system metadataand/or application specific metadata. Stored on the secondary storagedevice(s) 108 are secondary copy data objects 134A-C which may includecopies of or otherwise represent corresponding primary data objects andmetadata.

As shown, the secondary copy data objects 134A-C can individuallyrepresent more than one primary data object. For example, secondary copydata object 134A represents three separate primary data objects 133C,122, and 129C (represented as 133C′, 122′, and 129C′, respectively, andaccompanied by the corresponding metadata Meta11, Meta3, and Meta8,respectively). Moreover, as indicated by the prime mark (′), a secondarycopy object may store a representation of a primary data object and/ormetadata differently than the original format, e.g., in a compressed,encrypted, deduplicated, or other modified format. Likewise, secondarydata object 134B represents primary data objects 120, 133B, and 119A as120′, 133B′, and 119A′, respectively and accompanied by correspondingmetadata Meta2, Meta10, and Meta1, respectively. Also, secondary dataobject 134C represents primary data objects 133A, 119B, and 129A as133A′, 119B′, and 129A′, respectively, accompanied by correspondingmetadata Meta9, Meta5, and Meta6, respectively.

Exemplary Information Management System Architecture

The information management system 100 can incorporate a variety ofdifferent hardware and software components, which can in turn beorganized with respect to one another in many different configurations,depending on the embodiment. There are critical design choices involvedin specifying the functional responsibilities of the components and therole of each component in the information management system 100. Forinstance, as will be discussed, such design choices can impactperformance as well as the adaptability of the information managementsystem 100 to data growth or other changing circumstances.

FIG. 1C shows an information management system 100 designed according tothese considerations and which includes: storage manager 140, acentralized storage and/or information manager that is configured toperform certain control functions, one or more data agents 142 executingon the client computing device(s) 102 configured to process primary data112, and one or more media agents 144 executing on the one or moresecondary storage computing devices 106 for performing tasks involvingthe secondary storage devices 108. While distributing functionalityamongst multiple computing devices can have certain advantages, in othercontexts it can be beneficial to consolidate functionality on the samecomputing device. As such, in various other embodiments, one or more ofthe components shown in FIG. 1C as being implemented on separatecomputing devices are implemented on the same computing device. In oneconfiguration, a storage manager 140, one or more data agents 142, andone or more media agents 144 are all implemented on the same computingdevice. In another embodiment, one or more data agents 142 and one ormore media agents 144 are implemented on the same computing device,while the storage manager 140 is implemented on a separate computingdevice, etc. without limitation.

Storage Manager

As noted, the number of components in the information management system100 and the amount of data under management can be quite large. Managingthe components and data is therefore a significant task, and a task thatcan grow in an often unpredictable fashion as the quantity of componentsand data scale to meet the needs of the organization. For these andother reasons, according to certain embodiments, responsibility forcontrolling the information management system 100, or at least asignificant portion of that responsibility, is allocated to the storagemanager 140. By distributing control functionality in this manner, thestorage manager 140 can be adapted independently according to changingcircumstances. Moreover, a computing device for hosting the storagemanager 140 can be selected to best suit the functions of the storagemanager 140. These and other advantages are described in further detailbelow with respect to FIG. 1D.

The storage manager 140 may be a software module or other application,which, in some embodiments operates in conjunction with one or moreassociated data structures, e.g., a dedicated database (e.g., managementdatabase 146). In some embodiments, storage manager 140 is a computingdevice comprising circuitry for executing computer instructions andperforms the functions described herein. The storage manager generallyinitiates, performs, coordinates and/or controls storage and otherinformation management operations performed by the informationmanagement system 100, e.g., to protect and control the primary data 112and secondary copies 116 of data and metadata. In general, storagemanager 100 may be said to manage information management system 100,which includes managing the constituent components, e.g., data agentsand media agents, etc.

As shown by the dashed arrowed lines 114 in FIG. 1C, the storage manager140 may communicate with and/or control some or all elements of theinformation management system 100, such as the data agents 142 and mediaagents 144. Thus, in certain embodiments, control information originatesfrom the storage manager 140 and status reporting is transmitted tostorage manager 140 by the various managed components, whereas payloaddata and payload metadata is generally communicated between the dataagents 142 and the media agents 144 (or otherwise between the clientcomputing device(s) 102 and the secondary storage computing device(s)106), e.g., at the direction of and under the management of the storagemanager 140. Control information can generally include parameters andinstructions for carrying out information management operations, suchas, without limitation, instructions to perform a task associated withan operation, timing information specifying when to initiate a taskassociated with an operation, data path information specifying whatcomponents to communicate with or access in carrying out an operation,and the like. Payload data, on the other hand, can include the actualdata involved in the storage operation, such as content data written toa secondary storage device 108 in a secondary copy operation. Payloadmetadata can include any of the types of metadata described herein, andmay be written to a storage device along with the payload content data(e.g., in the form of a header).

In other embodiments, some information management operations arecontrolled by other components in the information management system 100(e.g., the media agent(s) 144 or data agent(s) 142), instead of or incombination with the storage manager 140.

According to certain embodiments, the storage manager 140 provides oneor more of the following functions:

-   -   initiating execution of secondary copy operations;    -   managing secondary storage devices 108 and inventory/capacity of        the same;    -   reporting, searching, and/or classification of data in the        information management system 100;    -   allocating secondary storage devices 108 for secondary storage        operations;    -   monitoring completion of and providing status reporting related        to secondary storage operations;    -   tracking age information relating to secondary copies 116,        secondary storage devices 108, and comparing the age information        against retention guidelines;    -   tracking movement of data within the information management        system 100;    -   tracking logical associations between components in the        information management system 100;    -   protecting metadata associated with the information management        system 100; and    -   implementing operations management functionality.

The storage manager 140 may maintain a database 146 (or “storage managerdatabase 146” or “management database 146”) of management-related dataand information management policies 148. The database 146 may include amanagement index 150 (or “index 150”) or other data structure thatstores logical associations between components of the system, userpreferences and/or profiles (e.g., preferences regarding encryption,compression, or deduplication of primary or secondary copy data,preferences regarding the scheduling, type, or other aspects of primaryor secondary copy or other operations, mappings of particularinformation management users or user accounts to certain computingdevices or other components, etc.), management tasks, mediacontainerization, or other useful data. For example, the storage manager140 may use the index 150 to track logical associations between mediaagents 144 and secondary storage devices 108 and/or movement of datafrom primary storage devices 104 to secondary storage devices 108. Forinstance, the index 150 may store data associating a client computingdevice 102 with a particular media agent 144 and/or secondary storagedevice 108, as specified in an information management policy 148 (e.g.,a storage policy, which is defined in more detail below).

Administrators and other people may be able to configure and initiatecertain information management operations on an individual basis. Butwhile this may be acceptable for some recovery operations or otherrelatively less frequent tasks, it is often not workable forimplementing on-going organization-wide data protection and management.Thus, the information management system 100 may utilize informationmanagement policies 148 for specifying and executing informationmanagement operations (e.g., on an automated basis). Generally, aninformation management policy 148 can include a data structure or otherinformation source that specifies a set of parameters (e.g., criteriaand rules) associated with storage or other information managementoperations.

The storage manager database 146 may maintain the information managementpolicies 148 and associated data, although the information managementpolicies 148 can be stored in any appropriate location. For instance, aninformation management policy 148 such as a storage policy may be storedas metadata in a media agent database 152 or in a secondary storagedevice 108 (e.g., as an archive copy) for use in restore operations orother information management operations, depending on the embodiment.Information management policies 148 are described further below.

According to certain embodiments, the storage manager database 146comprises a relational database (e.g., an SQL database) for trackingmetadata, such as metadata associated with secondary copy operations(e.g., what client computing devices 102 and corresponding data wereprotected). This and other metadata may additionally be stored in otherlocations, such as at the secondary storage computing devices 106 or onthe secondary storage devices 108, allowing data recovery without theuse of the storage manager 140 in some cases.

As shown, the storage manager 140 may include a jobs agent 156, a userinterface 158, and a management agent 154, all of which may beimplemented as interconnected software modules or application programs.

The jobs agent 156 in some embodiments initiates, controls, and/ormonitors the status of some or all storage or other informationmanagement operations previously performed, currently being performed,or scheduled to be performed by the information management system 100.For instance, the jobs agent 156 may access information managementpolicies 148 to determine when and how to initiate and control secondarycopy and other information management operations, as will be discussedfurther.

The user interface 158 may include information processing and displaysoftware, such as a graphical user interface (“GUI”), an applicationprogram interface (“API”), or other interactive interface(s) throughwhich users and system processes can retrieve information about thestatus of information management operations (e.g., storage operations)or issue instructions to the information management system 100 and itsconstituent components. Via the user interface 158, users may optionallyissue instructions to the components in the information managementsystem 100 regarding performance of storage and recovery operations. Forexample, a user may modify a schedule concerning the number of pendingsecondary copy operations. As another example, a user may employ the GUIto view the status of pending storage operations or to monitor thestatus of certain components in the information management system 100(e.g., the amount of capacity left in a storage device).

An “information management cell” (or “storage operation cell” or “cell”)may generally include a logical and/or physical grouping of acombination of hardware and software components associated withperforming information management operations on electronic data,typically one storage manager 140 and at least one client computingdevice 102 (comprising data agent(s) 142) and at least one media agent144. For instance, the components shown in FIG. 1C may together form aninformation management cell. Multiple cells may be organizedhierarchically. With this configuration, cells may inherit propertiesfrom hierarchically superior cells or be controlled by other cells inthe hierarchy (automatically or otherwise). Alternatively, in someembodiments, cells may inherit or otherwise be associated withinformation management policies, preferences, information managementmetrics, or other properties or characteristics according to theirrelative position in a hierarchy of cells. Cells may also be delineatedand/or organized hierarchically according to function, geography,architectural considerations, or other factors useful or desirable inperforming information management operations. A first cell may representa geographic segment of an enterprise, such as a Chicago office, and asecond cell may represent a different geographic segment, such as a NewYork office. Other cells may represent departments within a particularoffice. Where delineated by function, a first cell may perform one ormore first types of information management operations (e.g., one or morefirst types of secondary or other copies), and a second cell may performone or more second types of information management operations (e.g., oneor more second types of secondary or other copies).

The storage manager 140 may also track information that permits it toselect, designate, or otherwise identify content indices, deduplicationdatabases, or similar databases or resources or data sets within itsinformation management cell (or another cell) to be searched in responseto certain queries. Such queries may be entered by the user viainteraction with the user interface 158. In general, the managementagent 154 allows multiple information management cells to communicatewith one another. For example, the information management system 100 insome cases may be one information management cell of a network ofmultiple cells adjacent to one another or otherwise logically related ina WAN or LAN. With this arrangement, the cells may be connected to oneanother through respective management agents 154.

For instance, the management agent 154 can provide the storage manager140 with the ability to communicate with other components within theinformation management system 100 (and/or other cells within a largerinformation management system) via network protocols and applicationprogramming interfaces (“APIs”) including, e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, REST,virtualization software APIs, cloud service provider APIs, and hostedservice provider APIs. Inter-cell communication and hierarchy isdescribed in greater detail in e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,747,579 and7,343,453, which are incorporated by reference herein.

Data Agents

As discussed, a variety of different types of applications 110 canoperate on a given client computing device 102, including operatingsystems, database applications, e-mail applications, and virtualmachines, just to name a few. And, as part of the process of creatingand restoring secondary copies 116, the client computing devices 102 maybe tasked with processing and preparing the primary data 112 from thesevarious different applications 110. Moreover, the nature of theprocessing/preparation can differ across clients and application types,e.g., due to inherent structural and formatting differences amongapplications 110.

The one or more data agent(s) 142 are therefore advantageouslyconfigured in some embodiments to assist in the performance ofinformation management operations based on the type of data that isbeing protected, at a client-specific and/or application-specific level.

The data agent 142 may be a software module or component that isgenerally responsible for managing, initiating, or otherwise assistingin the performance of information management operations in informationmanagement system 100, generally as directed by storage manager 140. Forinstance, the data agent 142 may take part in performing data storageoperations such as the copying, archiving, migrating, and/or replicatingof primary data 112 stored in the primary storage device(s) 104. Thedata agent 142 may receive control information from the storage manager140, such as commands to transfer copies of data objects, metadata, andother payload data to the media agents 144.

In some embodiments, a data agent 142 may be distributed between theclient computing device 102 and storage manager 140 (and any otherintermediate components) or may be deployed from a remote location orits functions approximated by a remote process that performs some or allof the functions of data agent 142. In addition, a data agent 142 mayperform some functions provided by a media agent 144, or may performother functions such as encryption and deduplication.

As indicated, each data agent 142 may be specialized for a particularapplication 110, and the system can employ multiple application-specificdata agents 142, each of which may perform information managementoperations (e.g., perform backup, migration, and data recovery)associated with a different application 110. For instance, differentindividual data agents 142 may be designed to handle Microsoft Exchangedata, Lotus Notes data, Microsoft Windows file system data, MicrosoftActive Directory Objects data, SQL Server data, SharePoint data, Oracledatabase data, SAP database data, virtual machines and/or associateddata, and other types of data.

A file system data agent, for example, may handle data files and/orother file system information. If a client computing device 102 has twoor more types of data, a specialized data agent 142 may be used for eachdata type to copy, archive, migrate, and restore the client computingdevice 102 data. For example, to backup, migrate, and/or restore all ofthe data on a Microsoft Exchange server, the client computing device 102may use a Microsoft Exchange Mailbox data agent 142 to back up theExchange mailboxes, a Microsoft Exchange Database data agent 142 to backup the Exchange databases, a Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data agent142 to back up the Exchange Public Folders, and a Microsoft Windows FileSystem data agent 142 to back up the file system of the client computingdevice 102. In such embodiments, these specialized data agents 142 maybe treated as four separate data agents 142 even though they operate onthe same client computing device 102.

Other embodiments may employ one or more generic data agents 142 thatcan handle and process data from two or more different applications 110,or that can handle and process multiple data types, instead of or inaddition to using specialized data agents 142. For example, one genericdata agent 142 may be used to back up, migrate and restore MicrosoftExchange Mailbox data and Microsoft Exchange Database data while anothergeneric data agent may handle Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data andMicrosoft Windows File System data.

Each data agent 142 may be configured to access data and/or metadatastored in the primary storage device(s) 104 associated with the dataagent 142 and process the data as appropriate. For example, during asecondary copy operation, the data agent 142 may arrange or assemble thedata and metadata into one or more files having a certain format (e.g.,a particular backup or archive format) before transferring the file(s)to a media agent 144 or other component. The file(s) may include a listof files or other metadata. Each data agent 142 can also assist inrestoring data or metadata to primary storage devices 104 from asecondary copy 116. For instance, the data agent 142 may operate inconjunction with the storage manager 140 and one or more of the mediaagents 144 to restore data from secondary storage device(s) 108.

Media Agents

As indicated above with respect to FIG. 1A, off-loading certainresponsibilities from the client computing devices 102 to intermediatecomponents such as the media agent(s) 144 can provide a number ofbenefits including improved client computing device 102 operation,faster secondary copy operation performance, and enhanced scalability.In one specific example which will be discussed below in further detail,the media agent 144 can act as a local cache of copied data and/ormetadata that it has stored to the secondary storage device(s) 108,providing improved restore capabilities.

Generally speaking, a media agent 144 may be implemented as a softwaremodule that manages, coordinates, and facilitates the transmission ofdata, as directed by the storage manager 140, between a client computingdevice 102 and one or more secondary storage devices 108. Whereas thestorage manager 140 controls the operation of the information managementsystem 100, the media agent 144 generally provides a portal to secondarystorage devices 108. For instance, other components in the systeminteract with the media agents 144 to gain access to data stored on thesecondary storage devices 108, whether it be for the purposes ofreading, writing, modifying, or deleting data. Moreover, as will bedescribed further, media agents 144 can generate and store informationrelating to characteristics of the stored data and/or metadata, or cangenerate and store other types of information that generally providesinsight into the contents of the secondary storage devices 108.

Media agents 144 can comprise separate nodes in the informationmanagement system 100 (e.g., nodes that are separate from the clientcomputing devices 102, storage manager 140, and/or secondary storagedevices 108). In general, a node within the information managementsystem 100 can be a logically and/or physically separate component, andin some cases is a component that is individually addressable orotherwise identifiable. In addition, each media agent 144 may operate ona dedicated secondary storage computing device 106 in some cases, whilein other embodiments a plurality of media agents 144 operate on the samesecondary storage computing device 106.

A media agent 144 (and corresponding media agent database 152) may beconsidered to be “associated with” a particular secondary storage device108 if that media agent 144 is capable of one or more of: routing and/orstoring data to the particular secondary storage device 108,coordinating the routing and/or storing of data to the particularsecondary storage device 108, retrieving data from the particularsecondary storage device 108, coordinating the retrieval of data from aparticular secondary storage device 108, and modifying and/or deletingdata retrieved from the particular secondary storage device 108.

While media agent(s) 144 are generally associated with one or moresecondary storage devices 108, one or more media agents 144 in certainembodiments are physically separate from the secondary storage devices108. For instance, the media agents 144 may operate on secondary storagecomputing devices 106 having different housings or packages than thesecondary storage devices 108. In one example, a media agent 144operates on a first server computer and is in communication with asecondary storage device(s) 108 operating in a separate, rack-mountedRAID-based system.

Where the information management system 100 includes multiple mediaagents 144 (see, e.g., FIG. 1D), a first media agent 144 may providefailover functionality for a second, failed media agent 144. Inaddition, media agents 144 can be dynamically selected for storageoperations to provide load balancing. Failover and load balancing aredescribed in greater detail below.

In operation, a media agent 144 associated with a particular secondarystorage device 108 may instruct the secondary storage device 108 toperform an information management operation. For instance, a media agent144 may instruct a tape library to use a robotic arm or other retrievalmeans to load or eject a certain storage media, and to subsequentlyarchive, migrate, or retrieve data to or from that media, e.g., for thepurpose of restoring the data to a client computing device 102. Asanother example, a secondary storage device 108 may include an array ofhard disk drives or solid state drives organized in a RAIDconfiguration, and the media agent 144 may forward a logical unit number(LUN) and other appropriate information to the array, which uses thereceived information to execute the desired storage operation. The mediaagent 144 may communicate with a secondary storage device 108 via asuitable communications link, such as a SCSI or Fiber Channel link.

As shown, each media agent 144 may maintain an associated media agentdatabase 152. The media agent database 152 may be stored in a disk orother storage device (not shown) that is local to the secondary storagecomputing device 106 on which the media agent 144 operates. In othercases, the media agent database 152 is stored remotely from thesecondary storage computing device 106.

The media agent database 152 can include, among other things, an index153 (see, e.g., FIG. 1C), which comprises information generated duringsecondary copy operations and other storage or information managementoperations. The index 153 provides a media agent 144 or other componentwith a fast and efficient mechanism for locating secondary copies 116 orother data stored in the secondary storage devices 108. In some cases,the index 153 does not form a part of and is instead separate from themedia agent database 152.

A media agent index 153 or other data structure associated with theparticular media agent 144 may include information about the storeddata. For instance, for each secondary copy 116, the index 153 mayinclude metadata such as a list of the data objects (e.g.,files/subdirectories, database objects, mailbox objects, etc.), a pathto the secondary copy 116 on the corresponding secondary storage device108, location information indicating where the data objects are storedin the secondary storage device 108, when the data objects were createdor modified, etc. Thus, the index 153 includes metadata associated withthe secondary copies 116 that is readily available for use withouthaving to be first retrieved from the secondary storage device 108. Inyet further embodiments, some or all of the information in index 153 mayinstead or additionally be stored along with the secondary copies ofdata in a secondary storage device 108. In some embodiments, thesecondary storage devices 108 can include sufficient information toperform a “bare metal restore”, where the operating system of a failedclient computing device 102 or other restore target is automaticallyrebuilt as part of a restore operation.

Because the index 153 maintained in the media agent database 152 mayoperate as a cache, it can also be referred to as “an index cache.” Insuch cases, information stored in the index cache 153 typicallycomprises data that reflects certain particulars about storageoperations that have occurred relatively recently. After some triggeringevent, such as after a certain period of time elapses, or the indexcache 153 reaches a particular size, the index cache 153 may be copiedor migrated to a secondary storage device(s) 108. This information mayneed to be retrieved and uploaded back into the index cache 153 orotherwise restored to a media agent 144 to facilitate retrieval of datafrom the secondary storage device(s) 108. In some embodiments, thecached information may include format or containerization informationrelated to archives or other files stored on the storage device(s) 108.In this manner, the index cache 153 allows for accelerated restores.

In some alternative embodiments the media agent 144 generally acts as acoordinator or facilitator of storage operations between clientcomputing devices 102 and corresponding secondary storage devices 108,but does not actually write the data to the secondary storage device108. For instance, the storage manager 140 (or the media agent 144) mayinstruct a client computing device 102 and secondary storage device 108to communicate with one another directly. In such a case the clientcomputing device 102 transmits the data directly or via one or moreintermediary components to the secondary storage device 108 according tothe received instructions, and vice versa. In some such cases, the mediaagent 144 may still receive, process, and/or maintain metadata relatedto the storage operations. Moreover, in these embodiments, the payloaddata can flow through the media agent 144 for the purposes of populatingthe index cache 153 maintained in the media agent database 152, but notfor writing to the secondary storage device 108.

The media agent 144 and/or other components such as the storage manager140 may in some cases incorporate additional functionality, such as dataclassification, content indexing, deduplication, encryption,compression, and the like. Further details regarding these and otherfunctions are described below.

Distributed, Scalable Architecture

As described, certain functions of the information management system 100can be distributed amongst various physical and/or logical components inthe system. For instance, one or more of the storage manager 140, dataagents 142, and media agents 144 may operate on computing devices thatare physically separate from one another. This architecture can providea number of benefits.

For instance, hardware and software design choices for each distributedcomponent can be targeted to suit its particular function. The secondarycomputing devices 106 on which the media agents 144 operate can betailored for interaction with associated secondary storage devices 108and provide fast index cache operation, among other specific tasks.Similarly, the client computing device(s) 102 can be selected toeffectively service the applications 110 thereon, in order toefficiently produce and store primary data 112.

Moreover, in some cases, one or more of the individual components in theinformation management system 100 can be distributed to multiple,separate computing devices. As one example, for large file systems wherethe amount of data stored in the management database 146 is relativelylarge, the database 146 may be migrated to or otherwise reside on aspecialized database server (e.g., an SQL server) separate from a serverthat implements the other functions of the storage manager 140. Thisdistributed configuration can provide added protection because thedatabase 146 can be protected with standard database utilities (e.g.,SQL log shipping or database replication) independent from otherfunctions of the storage manager 140. The database 146 can beefficiently replicated to a remote site for use in the event of adisaster or other data loss at the primary site. Or the database 146 canbe replicated to another computing device within the same site, such asto a higher performance machine in the event that a storage manager hostdevice can no longer service the needs of a growing informationmanagement system 100.

The distributed architecture also provides both scalability andefficient component utilization. FIG. 1D shows an embodiment of theinformation management system 100 including a plurality of clientcomputing devices 102 and associated data agents 142 as well as aplurality of secondary storage computing devices 106 and associatedmedia agents 144.

Additional components can be added or subtracted based on the evolvingneeds of the information management system 100. For instance, dependingon where bottlenecks are identified, administrators can add additionalclient computing devices 102, secondary storage computing devices 106(and corresponding media agents 144), and/or secondary storage devices108. Moreover, where multiple fungible components are available, loadbalancing can be implemented to dynamically address identifiedbottlenecks. As an example, the storage manager 140 may dynamicallyselect which media agents 144 and/or secondary storage devices 108 touse for storage operations based on a processing load analysis of themedia agents 144 and/or secondary storage devices 108, respectively.

Moreover, each client computing device 102 in some embodiments cancommunicate with, among other components, any of the media agents 144,e.g., as directed by the storage manager 140. And each media agent 144may be able to communicate with, among other components, any of thesecondary storage devices 108, e.g., as directed by the storage manager140. Thus, operations can be routed to the secondary storage devices 108in a dynamic and highly flexible manner, to provide load balancing,failover, and the like. Further examples of scalable systems capable ofdynamic storage operations, and of systems capable of performing loadbalancing and fail over are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, whichis incorporated by reference herein.

In alternative configurations, certain components are not distributedand may instead reside and execute on the same computing device. Forexample, in some embodiments, one or more data agents 142 and thestorage manager 140 operate on the same client computing device 102. Inanother embodiment, one or more data agents 142 and one or more mediaagents 144 operate on a single computing device.

Exemplary Types of Information Management Operations

In order to protect and leverage stored data, the information managementsystem 100 can be configured to perform a variety of informationmanagement operations, which may, in some exemplary scenarios, bereferred to herein as “storage management operations.” As will bedescribed, these operations can generally include secondary copy andother data movement operations, processing and data manipulationoperations, analysis, reporting, and management operations. Theoperations described herein may be performed on any type of computingdevice, e.g., between two computers connected via a LAN, to a mobileclient telecommunications device connected to a server via a WLAN, toany manner of client computing device coupled to a cloud storage target,etc., without limitation.

Data Movement Operations

Data movement operations according to certain embodiments are generallyoperations that involve the copying or migration of data (e.g., payloaddata) between different locations in the information management system100 in an original/native and/or one or more different formats. Forexample, data movement operations can include operations in which storeddata is copied, migrated, or otherwise transferred from one or morefirst storage devices to one or more second storage devices, such asfrom primary storage device(s) 104 to secondary storage device(s) 108,from secondary storage device(s) 108 to different secondary storagedevice(s) 108, from secondary storage devices 108 to primary storagedevices 104, or from primary storage device(s) 104 to different primarystorage device(s) 104.

Data movement operations can include by way of example, backupoperations, archive operations, information lifecycle managementoperations such as hierarchical storage management operations,replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication operations),snapshot operations, deduplication or single-instancing operations,auxiliary copy operations, and the like. As will be discussed, some ofthese operations involve the copying, migration or other movement ofdata, without actually creating multiple, distinct copies. Nonetheless,some or all of these operations are referred to as “copy” operations forsimplicity.

Backup Operations

A backup operation creates a copy of a version of data (e.g., one ormore files or other data units) in primary data 112 at a particularpoint in time. Each subsequent backup copy may be maintainedindependently of the first. Further, a backup copy in some embodimentsis generally stored in a form that is different than the native format,e.g., a backup format. This can be in contrast to the version in primarydata 112 from which the backup copy is derived, and which may instead bestored in a native format of the source application(s) 110. In variouscases, backup copies can be stored in a format in which the data iscompressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified from theoriginal application format. For example, a backup copy may be stored ina backup format that facilitates compression and/or efficient long-termstorage.

Backup copies can have relatively long retention periods as compared toprimary data 112, and may be stored on media with slower retrieval timesthan primary data 112 and certain other types of secondary copies 116.On the other hand, backups may have relatively shorter retention periodsthan some other types of secondary copies 116, such as archive copies(described below). Backups may sometimes be stored at on offsitelocation.

Backup operations can include full backups, differential backups,incremental backups, “synthetic full” backups, and/or creating a“reference copy.” A full backup (or “standard full backup”) in someembodiments is generally a complete image of the data to be protected.However, because full backup copies can consume a relatively largeamount of storage, it can be useful to use a full backup copy as abaseline and only store changes relative to the full backup copy forsubsequent backup copies.

For instance, a differential backup operation (or cumulative incrementalbackup operation) tracks and stores changes that have occurred since thelast full backup. Differential backups can grow quickly in size, but canprovide relatively efficient restore times because a restore can becompleted in some cases using only the full backup copy and the latestdifferential copy.

An incremental backup operation generally tracks and stores changessince the most recent backup copy of any type, which can greatly reducestorage utilization. In some cases, however, restore times can berelatively long in comparison to full or differential backups becausecompleting a restore operation may involve accessing a full backup inaddition to multiple incremental backups.

Synthetic full backups generally consolidate data without directlybacking up data from the client computing device. A synthetic fullbackup is created from the most recent full backup (i.e., standard orsynthetic) and subsequent incremental and/or differential backups. Theresulting synthetic full backup is identical to what would have beencreated had the last backup for the subclient been a standard fullbackup. Unlike standard full, incremental, and differential backups, asynthetic full backup does not actually transfer data from a clientcomputer to the backup media, because it operates as a backupconsolidator. A synthetic full backup extracts the index data of eachparticipating subclient. Using this index data and the previously backedup user data images, it builds new full backup images, one for eachsubclient. The new backup images consolidate the index and user datastored in the related incremental, differential, and previous fullbackups, in some embodiments creating an archive file at the subclientlevel.

Any of the above types of backup operations can be at the volume-level,file-level, or block-level. Volume level backup operations generallyinvolve the copying of a data volume (e.g., a logical disk or partition)as a whole. In a file-level backup, the information management system100 may generally track changes to individual files, and includes copiesof files in the backup copy. In the case of a block-level backup, filesare broken into constituent blocks, and changes are tracked at theblock-level. Upon restore, the information management system 100reassembles the blocks into files in a transparent fashion.

Far less data may actually be transferred and copied to the secondarystorage devices 108 during a file-level copy than a volume-level copy.Likewise, a block-level copy may involve the transfer of less data thana file-level copy, resulting in faster execution times. However,restoring a relatively higher-granularity copy can result in longerrestore times. For instance, when restoring a block-level copy, theprocess of locating constituent blocks can sometimes result in longerrestore times as compared to file-level backups. Similar to backupoperations, the other types of secondary copy operations describedherein can also be implemented at either the volume-level, file-level,or block-level.

For example, in some embodiments, a reference copy may comprisecopy(ies) of selected objects from backed up data, typically to helporganize data by keeping contextual information from multiple sourcestogether, and/or help retain specific data for a longer period of time,such as for legal hold needs. A reference copy generally maintains dataintegrity, and when the data is restored, it may be viewed in the sameformat as the source data. In some embodiments, a reference copy isbased on a specialized client, individual subclient and associatedinformation management policies (e.g., storage policy, retention policy,etc.) that are administered within information management system 100.

Archive Operations

Because backup operations generally involve maintaining a version of thecopied data in primary data 112 and also maintaining backup copies insecondary storage device(s) 108, they can consume significant storagecapacity. To help reduce storage consumption, an archive operationaccording to certain embodiments creates a secondary copy 116 by bothcopying and removing source data. Or, seen another way, archiveoperations can involve moving some or all of the source data to thearchive destination. Thus, data satisfying criteria for removal (e.g.,data of a threshold age or size) may be removed from source storage. Thesource data may be primary data 112 or a secondary copy 116, dependingon the situation. As with backup copies, archive copies can be stored ina format in which the data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated,and/or otherwise modified from the format of the original application orsource copy. In addition, archive copies may be retained for relativelylong periods of time (e.g., years) and, in some cases, are neverdeleted. Archive copies are generally retained for longer periods oftime than backup copies, for example. In certain embodiments, archivecopies may be made and kept for extended periods in order to meetcompliance regulations.

Moreover, when primary data 112 is archived, in some cases thecorresponding primary data 112 or a portion thereof is deleted whencreating the archive copy. Thus, archiving can serve the purpose offreeing up space in the primary storage device(s) 104 and easing thedemand on computational resources on client computing device 102.Similarly, when a secondary copy 116 is archived, the secondary copy 116may be deleted, and an archive copy can therefore serve the purpose offreeing up space in secondary storage device(s) 108. In contrast, sourcecopies often remain intact when creating backup copies. Examples ofcompatible data archiving operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,107,298, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Snapshot Operations

Snapshot operations can provide a relatively lightweight, efficientmechanism for protecting data. From an end-user viewpoint, a snapshotmay be thought of as an “instant” image of the primary data 112 at agiven point in time, and may include state and/or status informationrelative to an application that creates/manages the primary data. In oneembodiment, a snapshot may generally capture the directory structure ofan object in primary data 112 such as a file or volume or other data setat a particular moment in time and may also preserve file attributes andcontents. A snapshot in some cases is created relatively quickly, e.g.,substantially instantly, using a minimum amount of file space, but maystill function as a conventional file system backup.

A “hardware snapshot” (or “hardware-based snapshot”) operation can be asnapshot operation where a target storage device (e.g., a primarystorage device 104 or a secondary storage device 108) performs thesnapshot operation in a self-contained fashion, substantiallyindependently, using hardware, firmware and/or software operating on thestorage device itself. For instance, the storage device may be capableof performing snapshot operations upon request, generally withoutintervention or oversight from any of the other components in theinformation management system 100. In this manner, hardware snapshotscan off-load other components of information management system 100 fromprocessing involved in snapshot creation and management.

A “software snapshot” (or “software-based snapshot”) operation, on theother hand, can be a snapshot operation in which one or more othercomponents in information management system 100 (e.g., client computingdevices 102, data agents 142, etc.) implement a software layer thatmanages the snapshot operation via interaction with the target storagedevice. For instance, the component executing the snapshot managementsoftware layer may derive a set of pointers and/or data that representsthe snapshot. The snapshot management software layer may then transmitthe same to the target storage device, along with appropriateinstructions for writing the snapshot.

Some types of snapshots do not actually create another physical copy ofall the data as it existed at the particular point in time, but maysimply create pointers that are able to map files and directories tospecific memory locations (e.g., to specific disk blocks) where the dataresides, as it existed at the particular point in time. For example, asnapshot copy may include a set of pointers derived from the file systemor from an application. In some other cases, the snapshot may be createdat the block-level, such that creation of the snapshot occurs withoutawareness of the file system. Each pointer points to a respective storeddata block, so that collectively, the set of pointers reflect thestorage location and state of the data object (e.g., file(s) orvolume(s) or data set(s)) at a particular point in time when thesnapshot copy was created.

An initial snapshot may use only a small amount of disk space needed torecord a mapping or other data structure representing or otherwisetracking the blocks that correspond to the current state of the filesystem. Additional disk space is usually required only when files anddirectories are modified later on. Furthermore, when files are modified,typically only the pointers which map to blocks are copied, not theblocks themselves. In some embodiments, for example in the case of“copy-on-write” snapshots, when a block changes in primary storage, theblock is copied to secondary storage or cached in primary storage beforethe block is overwritten in primary storage, and the pointer to thatblock changed to reflect the new location of that block. The snapshotmapping of file system data may also be updated to reflect the changedblock(s) at that particular point in time. In some other cases, asnapshot includes a full physical copy of all or substantially all ofthe data represented by the snapshot. Further examples of snapshotoperations are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, which isincorporated by reference herein.

A snapshot copy in many cases can be made quickly and withoutsignificantly impacting primary computing resources because largeamounts of data need not be copied or moved. In some embodiments, asnapshot may exist as a virtual file system, parallel to the actual filesystem. Users in some cases gain read-only access to the record of filesand directories of the snapshot. By electing to restore primary data 112from a snapshot taken at a given point in time, users may also returnthe current file system to the state of the file system that existedwhen the snapshot was taken.

Replication Operations

Another type of secondary copy operation is a replication operation.Some types of secondary copies 116 are used to periodically captureimages of primary data 112 at particular points in time (e.g., backups,archives, and snapshots). However, it can also be useful for recoverypurposes to protect primary data 112 in a more continuous fashion, byreplicating the primary data 112 substantially as changes occur. In somecases a replication copy can be a mirror copy, for instance, wherechanges made to primary data 112 are mirrored or substantiallyimmediately copied to another location (e.g., to secondary storagedevice(s) 108). By copying each write operation to the replication copy,two storage systems are kept synchronized or substantially synchronizedso that they are virtually identical at approximately the same time.Where entire disk volumes are mirrored, however, mirroring can requiresignificant amount of storage space and utilizes a large amount ofprocessing resources.

According to some embodiments storage operations are performed onreplicated data that represents a recoverable state, or “known goodstate” of a particular application running on the source system. Forinstance, in certain embodiments, known good replication copies may beviewed as copies of primary data 112. This feature allows the system todirectly access, copy, restore, backup or otherwise manipulate thereplication copies as if the data were the “live” primary data 112. Thiscan reduce access time, storage utilization, and impact on sourceapplications 110, among other benefits. Based on known good stateinformation, the information management system 100 can replicatesections of application data that represent a recoverable state ratherthan rote copying of blocks of data. Examples of compatible replicationoperations (e.g., continuous data replication) are provided in U.S. Pat.No. 7,617,262, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Deduplication/Single-Instancing Operations

Another type of data movement operation is deduplication orsingle-instance storage, which is useful to reduce the amount ofnon-primary data. For instance, some or all of the above-describedsecondary storage operations can involve deduplication in some fashion.New data is read, broken down into portions (e.g., sub-file levelblocks, files, etc.) of a selected granularity, compared with blocksthat are already in secondary storage, and only the new blocks arestored. Blocks that already exist are represented as pointers to thealready stored data.

In order to streamline the comparison process, the informationmanagement system 100 may calculate and/or store signatures (e.g.,hashes or cryptographically unique IDs) corresponding to the individualdata blocks in a database and compare the signatures instead ofcomparing entire data blocks. In some cases, only a single instance ofeach element is stored, and deduplication operations may therefore bereferred to interchangeably as “single-instancing” operations. Dependingon the implementation, however, deduplication or single-instancingoperations can store more than one instance of certain data blocks, butnonetheless significantly reduce data redundancy. Depending on theembodiment, deduplication blocks can be of fixed or variable length.Using variable length blocks can provide enhanced deduplication byresponding to changes in the data stream, but can involve complexprocessing. In some cases, the information management system 100utilizes a technique for dynamically aligning deduplication blocks(e.g., fixed-length blocks) based on changing content in the datastream, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652, which is incorporatedby reference herein.

The information management system 100 can perform deduplication in avariety of manners at a variety of locations in the informationmanagement system 100. For instance, in some embodiments, theinformation management system 100 implements “target-side” deduplicationby deduplicating data (e.g., secondary copies 116) stored in thesecondary storage devices 108. In some such cases, the media agents 144are generally configured to manage the deduplication process. Forinstance, one or more of the media agents 144 maintain a correspondingdeduplication database that stores deduplication information (e.g.,datablock signatures). Examples of such a configuration are provided inU.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826, which is incorporated by referenceherein. Instead of or in combination with “target-side” deduplication,deduplication can also be performed on the “source-side” (or“client-side”), e.g., to reduce the amount of traffic between the mediaagents 144 and the client computing device(s) 102 and/or reduceredundant data stored in the primary storage devices 104. According tovarious implementations, one or more of the storage devices of thetarget-side and/or source-side of an operation can be cloud-basedstorage devices. Thus, the target-side and/or source-side deduplicationcan be cloud-based deduplication. In particular, as discussedpreviously, the storage manager 140 may communicate with othercomponents within the information management system 100 via networkprotocols and cloud service provider APIs to facilitate cloud-baseddeduplication/single instancing. Examples of such deduplicationtechniques are provided in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150818, which isincorporated by reference herein. Some other compatiblededuplication/single instancing techniques are described in U.S. Pat.Pub. Nos. 2006/0224846 and 2009/0319534, which are incorporated byreference herein.

Information Lifecycle Management and Hierarchical Storage ManagementOperations

In some embodiments, files and other data over their lifetime move frommore expensive, quick access storage to less expensive, slower accessstorage. Operations associated with moving data through various tiers ofstorage are sometimes referred to as information lifecycle management(ILM) operations.

One type of ILM operation is a hierarchical storage management (HSM)operation. A HSM operation is generally an operation for automaticallymoving data between classes of storage devices, such as betweenhigh-cost and low-cost storage devices. For instance, an HSM operationmay involve movement of data from primary storage devices 104 tosecondary storage devices 108, or between tiers of secondary storagedevices 108. With each tier, the storage devices may be progressivelyrelatively cheaper, have relatively slower access/restore times, etc.For example, movement of data between tiers may occur as data becomesless important over time.

In some embodiments, an HSM operation is similar to an archive operationin that creating an HSM copy may (though not always) involve deletingsome of the source data, e.g., according to one or more criteria relatedto the source data. For example, an HSM copy may include data fromprimary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 that is larger than a givensize threshold or older than a given age threshold and that is stored ina backup format.

Often, and unlike some types of archive copies, HSM data that is removedor aged from the source is replaced by a logical reference pointer orstub. The reference pointer or stub can be stored in the primary storagedevice 104 (or other source storage device, such as a secondary storagedevice 108) to replace the deleted source data and to point to orotherwise indicate the new location in a secondary storage device 108.

According to one example, files are generally moved between higher andlower cost storage depending on how often the files are accessed. When auser requests access to the HSM data that has been removed or migrated,the information management system 100 uses the stub to locate the dataand may make recovery of the data appear transparent, even though theHSM data may be stored at a location different from other source data.In this manner, the data appears to the user (e.g., in file systembrowsing windows and the like) as if it still resides in the sourcelocation (e.g., in a primary storage device 104). The stub may alsoinclude some metadata associated with the corresponding data, so that afile system and/or application can provide some information about thedata object and/or a limited-functionality version (e.g., a preview) ofthe data object.

An HSM copy may be stored in a format other than the native applicationformat (e.g., where the data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated,and/or otherwise modified from the original native application format).In some cases, copies which involve the removal of data from sourcestorage and the maintenance of stub or other logical referenceinformation on source storage may be referred to generally as “on-linearchive copies”. On the other hand, copies which involve the removal ofdata from source storage without the maintenance of stub or otherlogical reference information on source storage may be referred to as“off-line archive copies”. Examples of HSM and ILM techniques areprovided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by referenceherein.

Auxiliary Copy and Disaster Recovery Operations

An auxiliary copy is generally a copy operation in which a copy iscreated of an existing secondary copy 116. For instance, an initialsecondary copy 116 may be generated using or otherwise be derived fromprimary data 112 (or other data residing in the secondary storagesubsystem 118), whereas an auxiliary copy is generated from the initialsecondary copy 116. Auxiliary copies can be used to create additionalstandby copies of data and may reside on different secondary storagedevices 108 than the initial secondary copies 116. Thus, auxiliarycopies can be used for recovery purposes if initial secondary copies 116become unavailable. Exemplary compatible auxiliary copy techniques aredescribed in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, which isincorporated by reference herein.

The information management system 100 may also perform disaster recoveryoperations that make or retain disaster recovery copies, often assecondary, high-availability disk copies. The information managementsystem 100 may create secondary disk copies and store the copies atdisaster recovery locations using auxiliary copy or replicationoperations, such as continuous data replication technologies. Dependingon the particular data protection goals, disaster recovery locations canbe remote from the client computing devices 102 and primary storagedevices 104, remote from some or all of the secondary storage devices108, or both.

Data Analysis, Reporting, and Management Operations

Data analysis, reporting, and management operations can be differentthan data movement operations in that they do not necessarily involvethe copying, migration or other transfer of data (e.g., primary data 112or secondary copies 116) between different locations in the system. Forinstance, data analysis operations may involve processing (e.g., offlineprocessing) or modification of already stored primary data 112 and/orsecondary copies 116. However, in some embodiments data analysisoperations are performed in conjunction with data movement operations.Some data analysis operations include content indexing operations andclassification operations which can be useful in leveraging the dataunder management to provide enhanced search and other features. Otherdata analysis operations such as compression and encryption can providedata reduction and security benefits, respectively.

Classification Operations/Content Indexing

In some embodiments, the information management system 100 analyzes andindexes characteristics, content, and metadata associated with theprimary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116. The content indexing canbe used to identify files or other data objects having pre-definedcontent (e.g., user-defined keywords or phrases, other keywords/phrasesthat are not defined by a user, etc.), and/or metadata (e.g., emailmetadata such as “to”, “from”, “cc”, “bcc”, attachment name, receivedtime, etc.).

The information management system 100 generally organizes and cataloguesthe results in a content index, which may be stored within the mediaagent database 152, for example. The content index can also include thestorage locations of (or pointer references to) the indexed data in theprimary data 112 or secondary copies 116, as appropriate. The resultsmay also be stored, in the form of a content index database orotherwise, elsewhere in the information management system 100 (e.g., inthe primary storage devices 104, or in the secondary storage device108). Such index data provides the storage manager 140 or anothercomponent with an efficient mechanism for locating primary data 112and/or secondary copies 116 of data objects that match particularcriteria.

For instance, search criteria can be specified by a user through userinterface 158 of the storage manager 140. In some cases, the informationmanagement system 100 analyzes data and/or metadata in secondary copies116 to create an “off-line” content index, without significantlyimpacting the performance of the client computing devices 102. Dependingon the embodiment, the system can also implement “on-line” contentindexing, e.g., of primary data 112. Examples of compatible contentindexing techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, which isincorporated by reference herein.

One or more components can be configured to scan data and/or associatedmetadata for classification purposes to populate a database (or otherdata structure) of information, which can be referred to as a “dataclassification database” or a “metabase”. Depending on the embodiment,the data classification database(s) can be organized in a variety ofdifferent ways, including centralization, logical sub-divisions, and/orphysical sub-divisions. For instance, one or more centralized dataclassification databases may be associated with different subsystems ortiers within the information management system 100. As an example, theremay be a first centralized metabase associated with the primary storagesubsystem 117 and a second centralized metabase associated with thesecondary storage subsystem 118. In other cases, there may be one ormore metabases associated with individual components, e.g., clientcomputing devices 102 and/or media agents 144. In some embodiments, adata classification database (metabase) may reside as one or more datastructures within management database 146, or may be otherwiseassociated with storage manager 140.

In some cases, the metabase(s) may be included in separate database(s)and/or on separate storage device(s) from primary data 112 and/orsecondary copies 116, such that operations related to the metabase donot significantly impact performance on other components in theinformation management system 100. In other cases, the metabase(s) maybe stored along with primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116. Filesor other data objects can be associated with identifiers (e.g., tagentries, etc.) in the media agent 144 (or other indices) to facilitatesearches of stored data objects. Among a number of other benefits, themetabase can also allow efficient, automatic identification of files orother data objects to associate with secondary copy or other informationmanagement operations (e.g., in lieu of scanning an entire file system).Examples of compatible metabases and data classification operations areprovided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,229,954 and 7,747,579, which areincorporated by reference herein.

Encryption Operations

The information management system 100 in some cases is configured toprocess data (e.g., files or other data objects, secondary copies 116,etc.), according to an appropriate encryption algorithm (e.g., Blowfish,Advanced Encryption Standard [AES], Triple Data Encryption Standard[3-DES], etc.) to limit access and provide data security in theinformation management system 100. The information management system 100in some cases encrypts the data at the client level, such that theclient computing devices 102 (e.g., the data agents 142) encrypt thedata prior to forwarding the data to other components, e.g., beforesending the data to media agents 144 during a secondary copy operation.In such cases, the client computing device 102 may maintain or haveaccess to an encryption key or passphrase for decrypting the data uponrestore. Encryption can also occur when creating copies of secondarycopies, e.g., when creating auxiliary copies or archive copies. In yetfurther embodiments, the secondary storage devices 108 can implementbuilt-in, high performance hardware encryption.

Management and Reporting Operations

Certain embodiments leverage the integrated, ubiquitous nature of theinformation management system 100 to provide useful system-widemanagement and reporting functions. Examples of some compatiblemanagement and reporting techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Operations management can generally include monitoring and managing thehealth and performance of information management system 100 by, withoutlimitation, performing error tracking, generating granularstorage/performance metrics (e.g., job success/failure information,deduplication efficiency, etc.), generating storage modeling and costinginformation, and the like. As an example, a storage manager 140 or othercomponent in the information management system 100 may analyze trafficpatterns and suggest and/or automatically route data via a particularroute to minimize congestion. In some embodiments, the system cangenerate predictions relating to storage operations or storage operationinformation. Such predictions, which may be based on a trendinganalysis, may predict various network operations or resource usage, suchas network traffic levels, storage media use, use of bandwidth ofcommunication links, use of media agent components, etc. Furtherexamples of traffic analysis, trend analysis, prediction generation, andthe like are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporatedby reference herein.

In some configurations, a master storage manager 140 may track thestatus of storage operation cells in a hierarchy, such as the status ofjobs, system components, system resources, and other items, bycommunicating with storage managers 140 (or other components) in therespective storage operation cells. Moreover, the master storage manager140 may track the status of its associated storage operation cells andinformation management operations by receiving periodic status updatesfrom the storage managers 140 (or other components) in the respectivecells regarding jobs, system components, system resources, and otheritems. In some embodiments, a master storage manager 140 may storestatus information and other information regarding its associatedstorage operation cells and other system information in its index 150(or other location).

The master storage manager 140 or other component may also determinewhether certain storage-related criteria or other criteria aresatisfied, and perform an action or trigger event (e.g., data migration)in response to the criteria being satisfied, such as where a storagethreshold is met for a particular volume, or where inadequate protectionexists for certain data. For instance, in some embodiments, data fromone or more storage operation cells is used to dynamically andautomatically mitigate recognized risks, and/or to advise users of risksor suggest actions to mitigate these risks. For example, an informationmanagement policy may specify certain requirements (e.g., that a storagedevice should maintain a certain amount of free space, that secondarycopies should occur at a particular interval, that data should be agedand migrated to other storage after a particular period, that data on asecondary volume should always have a certain level of availability andbe restorable within a given time period, that data on a secondaryvolume may be mirrored or otherwise migrated to a specified number ofother volumes, etc.). If a risk condition or other criterion istriggered, the system may notify the user of these conditions and maysuggest (or automatically implement) an action to mitigate or otherwiseaddress the risk. For example, the system may indicate that data from aprimary copy 112 should be migrated to a secondary storage device 108 tofree space on the primary storage device 104. Examples of the use ofrisk factors and other triggering criteria are described in U.S. Pat.No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.

In some embodiments, the system 100 may also determine whether a metricor other indication satisfies particular storage criteria and, if so,perform an action. For example, as previously described, a storagepolicy or other definition might indicate that a storage manager 140should initiate a particular action if a storage metric or otherindication drops below or otherwise fails to satisfy specified criteriasuch as a threshold of data protection. Examples of such metrics aredescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by referenceherein.

In some embodiments, risk factors may be quantified into certainmeasurable service or risk levels for ease of comprehension. Forexample, certain applications and associated data may be considered tobe more important by an enterprise than other data and services.Financial compliance data, for example, may be of greater importancethan marketing materials, etc. Network administrators may assignpriority values or “weights” to certain data and/or applications,corresponding to the relative importance. The level of compliance ofstorage operations specified for these applications may also be assigneda certain value. Thus, the health, impact, and overall importance of aservice may be determined, such as by measuring the compliance value andcalculating the product of the priority value and the compliance valueto determine the “service level” and comparing it to certain operationalthresholds to determine whether it is acceptable. Further examples ofthe service level determination are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453,which is incorporated by reference herein.

The system 100 may additionally calculate data costing and dataavailability associated with information management operation cellsaccording to an embodiment of the invention. For instance, data receivedfrom the cell may be used in conjunction with hardware-relatedinformation and other information about system elements to determine thecost of storage and/or the availability of particular data in thesystem. Exemplary information generated could include how fast aparticular department is using up available storage space, how long datawould take to recover over a particular system pathway from a particularsecondary storage device, costs over time, etc. Moreover, in someembodiments, such information may be used to determine or predict theoverall cost associated with the storage of certain information. Thecost associated with hosting a certain application may be based, atleast in part, on the type of media on which the data resides, forexample. Storage devices may be assigned to a particular costcategories, for example. Further examples of costing techniques aredescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by referenceherein.

Any of the above types of information (e.g., information related totrending, predictions, job, cell or component status, risk, servicelevel, costing, etc.) can generally be provided to users via the userinterface 158 in a single, integrated view or console (not shown). Theconsole may support a reporting capability that allows for thegeneration of a variety of reports, which may be tailored to aparticular aspect of information management. Report types may include:scheduling, event management, media management and data aging. Availablereports may also include backup history, data aging history, auxiliarycopy history, job history, library and drive, media in library, restorehistory, and storage policy, etc., without limitation. Such reports maybe specified and created at a certain point in time as a systemanalysis, forecasting, or provisioning tool. Integrated reports may alsobe generated that illustrate storage and performance metrics, risks andstorage costing information. Moreover, users may create their ownreports based on specific needs.

The integrated user interface 158 can include an option to show a“virtual view” of the system that graphically depicts the variouscomponents in the system using appropriate icons. As one example, theuser interface 158 may provide a graphical depiction of one or moreprimary storage devices 104, the secondary storage devices 108, dataagents 142 and/or media agents 144, and their relationship to oneanother in the information management system 100. The operationsmanagement functionality can facilitate planning and decision-making.For example, in some embodiments, a user may view the status of some orall jobs as well as the status of each component of the informationmanagement system 100. Users may then plan and make decisions based onthis data. For instance, a user may view high-level informationregarding storage operations for the information management system 100,such as job status, component status, resource status (e.g.,communication pathways, etc.), and other information. The user may alsodrill down or use other means to obtain more detailed informationregarding a particular component, job, or the like. Further examples ofsome reporting techniques and associated interfaces providing anintegrated view of an information management system are provided in U.S.Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.

The information management system 100 can also be configured to performsystem-wide e-discovery operations in some embodiments. In general,e-discovery operations provide a unified collection and searchcapability for data in the system, such as data stored in the secondarystorage devices 108 (e.g., backups, archives, or other secondary copies116). For example, the information management system 100 may constructand maintain a virtual repository for data stored in the informationmanagement system 100 that is integrated across source applications 110,different storage device types, etc. According to some embodiments,e-discovery utilizes other techniques described herein, such as dataclassification and/or content indexing.

Information Management Policies

As indicated previously, an information management policy 148 caninclude a data structure or other information source that specifies aset of parameters (e.g., criteria and rules) associated with secondarycopy and/or other information management operations.

One type of information management policy 148 is a storage policy.According to certain embodiments, a storage policy generally comprises adata structure or other information source that defines (or includesinformation sufficient to determine) a set of preferences or othercriteria for performing information management operations. Storagepolicies can include one or more of the following items: (1) what datawill be associated with the storage policy; (2) a destination to whichthe data will be stored; (3) datapath information specifying how thedata will be communicated to the destination; (4) the type of storageoperation to be performed; and (5) retention information specifying howlong the data will be retained at the destination (see, e.g., FIG. 1E).

As an illustrative example, data associated with a storage policy can belogically organized into groups. In some cases, these logical groupingscan be referred to as “sub-clients”. A sub-client may represent staticor dynamic associations of portions of a data volume. Sub-clients mayrepresent mutually exclusive portions. Thus, in certain embodiments, aportion of data may be given a label and the association is stored as astatic entity in an index, database or other storage location.Sub-clients may also be used as an effective administrative scheme oforganizing data according to data type, department within theenterprise, storage preferences, or the like. Depending on theconfiguration, sub-clients can correspond to files, folders, virtualmachines, databases, etc. In one exemplary scenario, an administratormay find it preferable to separate e-mail data from financial data usingtwo different sub-clients.

A storage policy can define where data is stored by specifying a targetor destination storage device (or group of storage devices). Forinstance, where the secondary storage device 108 includes a group ofdisk libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular disk libraryfor storing the sub-clients associated with the policy. As anotherexample, where the secondary storage devices 108 include one or moretape libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular tape libraryfor storing the sub-clients associated with the storage policy, and mayalso specify a drive pool and a tape pool defining a group of tapedrives and a group of tapes, respectively, for use in storing thesub-client data. While information in the storage policy can bestatically assigned in some cases, some or all of the information in thestorage policy can also be dynamically determined based on criteria,which can be set forth in the storage policy. For instance, based onsuch criteria, a particular destination storage device(s) (or otherparameter of the storage policy) may be determined based oncharacteristics associated with the data involved in a particularstorage operation, device availability (e.g., availability of asecondary storage device 108 or a media agent 144), network status andconditions (e.g., identified bottlenecks), user credentials, and thelike).

Datapath information can also be included in the storage policy. Forinstance, the storage policy may specify network pathways and componentsto utilize when moving the data to the destination storage device(s). Insome embodiments, the storage policy specifies one or more media agents144 for conveying data associated with the storage policy between thesource (e.g., one or more host client computing devices 102) anddestination (e.g., a particular target secondary storage device 108).

A storage policy can also specify the type(s) of operations associatedwith the storage policy, such as a backup, archive, snapshot, auxiliarycopy, or the like. Retention information can specify how long the datawill be kept, depending on organizational needs (e.g., a number of days,months, years, etc.)

Another type of information management policy 148 is a schedulingpolicy, which specifies when and how often to perform operations.Scheduling parameters may specify with what frequency (e.g., hourly,weekly, daily, event-based, etc.) or under what triggering conditionssecondary copy or other information management operations will takeplace. Scheduling policies in some cases are associated with particularcomponents, such as particular logical groupings of data associated witha storage policy (e.g., a sub-client), client computing device 102, andthe like. In one configuration, a separate scheduling policy ismaintained for particular logical groupings of data on a clientcomputing device 102. The scheduling policy specifies that those logicalgroupings are to be moved to secondary storage devices 108 every houraccording to storage policies associated with the respectivesub-clients.

When adding a new client computing device 102, administrators canmanually configure information management policies 148 and/or othersettings, e.g., via the user interface 158. However, this can be aninvolved process resulting in delays, and it may be desirable to begindata protection operations quickly, without awaiting human intervention.Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system 100automatically applies a default configuration to client computing device102. As one example, when one or more data agent(s) 142 are installed onone or more client computing devices 102, the installation script mayregister the client computing device 102 with the storage manager 140,which in turn applies the default configuration to the new clientcomputing device 102. In this manner, data protection operations canbegin substantially immediately. The default configuration can include adefault storage policy, for example, and can specify any appropriateinformation sufficient to begin data protection operations. This caninclude a type of data protection operation, scheduling information, atarget secondary storage device 108, data path information (e.g., aparticular media agent 144), and the like.

Other types of information management policies 148 are possible,including one or more audit (or security) policies. An audit policy is aset of preferences, rules and/or criteria that protect sensitive data inthe information management system 100. For example, an audit policy maydefine “sensitive objects” as files or objects that contain particularkeywords (e.g., “confidential,” or “privileged”) and/or are associatedwith particular keywords (e.g., in metadata) or particular flags (e.g.,in metadata identifying a document or email as personal, confidential,etc.). An audit policy may further specify rules for handling sensitiveobjects. As an example, an audit policy may require that a reviewerapprove the transfer of any sensitive objects to a cloud storage site,and that if approval is denied for a particular sensitive object, thesensitive object should be transferred to a local primary storage device104 instead. To facilitate this approval, the audit policy may furtherspecify how a secondary storage computing device 106 or other systemcomponent should notify a reviewer that a sensitive object is slated fortransfer.

Another type of information management policy 148 is a provisioningpolicy. A provisioning policy can include a set of preferences,priorities, rules, and/or criteria that specify how client computingdevices 102 (or groups thereof) may utilize system resources, such asavailable storage on cloud storage and/or network bandwidth. Aprovisioning policy specifies, for example, data quotas for particularclient computing devices 102 (e.g., a number of gigabytes that can bestored monthly, quarterly or annually). The storage manager 140 or othercomponents may enforce the provisioning policy. For instance, the mediaagents 144 may enforce the policy when transferring data to secondarystorage devices 108. If a client computing device 102 exceeds a quota, abudget for the client computing device 102 (or associated department) isadjusted accordingly or an alert may trigger.

While the above types of information management policies 148 have beendescribed as separate policies, one or more of these can be generallycombined into a single information management policy 148. For instance,a storage policy may also include or otherwise be associated with one ormore scheduling, audit, or provisioning policies or operationalparameters thereof. Moreover, while storage policies are typicallyassociated with moving and storing data, other policies may beassociated with other types of information management operations. Thefollowing is a non-exhaustive list of items the information managementpolicies 148 may specify:

-   -   schedules or other timing information, e.g., specifying when        and/or how often to perform information management operations;    -   the type of copy 116 (e.g., type of secondary copy) and/or copy        format (e.g., snapshot, backup, archive, HSM, etc.);    -   a location or a class or quality of storage for storing        secondary copies 116 (e.g., one or more particular secondary        storage devices 108);    -   preferences regarding whether and how to encrypt, compress,        deduplicate, or otherwise modify or transform secondary copies        116;    -   which system components and/or network pathways (e.g., preferred        media agents 144) should be used to perform secondary storage        operations;    -   resource allocation among different computing devices or other        system components used in performing information management        operations (e.g., bandwidth allocation, available storage        capacity, etc.);    -   whether and how to synchronize or otherwise distribute files or        other data objects across multiple computing devices or hosted        services; and    -   retention information specifying the length of time primary data        112 and/or secondary copies 116 should be retained, e.g., in a        particular class or tier of storage devices, or within the        information management system 100.

Policies can additionally specify or depend on a variety of historicalor current criteria that may be used to determine which rules to applyto a particular data object, system component, or information managementoperation, such as:

-   -   frequency with which primary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 of        a data object or metadata has been or is predicted to be used,        accessed, or modified;    -   time-related factors (e.g., aging information such as time since        the creation or modification of a data object);    -   deduplication information (e.g., hashes, data blocks,        deduplication block size, deduplication efficiency or other        metrics);    -   an estimated or historic usage or cost associated with different        components (e.g., with secondary storage devices 108);    -   the identity of users, applications 110, client computing        devices 102 and/or other computing devices that created,        accessed, modified, or otherwise utilized primary data 112 or        secondary copies 116;    -   a relative sensitivity (e.g., confidentiality, importance) of a        data object, e.g., as determined by its content and/or metadata;    -   the current or historical storage capacity of various storage        devices;    -   the current or historical network capacity of network pathways        connecting various components within the storage operation cell;    -   access control lists or other security information; and    -   the content of a particular data object (e.g., its textual        content) or of metadata associated with the data object.

Exemplary Storage Policy and Secondary Storage Operations

FIG. 1E includes a data flow diagram depicting performance of storageoperations by an embodiment of an information management system 100,according to an exemplary storage policy 148A. The informationmanagement system 100 includes a storage manger 140, a client computingdevice 102 having a file system data agent 142A and an email data agent142B operating thereon, a primary storage device 104, two media agents144A, 144B, and two secondary storage devices 108A, 108B: a disk library108A and a tape library 108B. As shown, the primary storage device 104includes primary data 112A, which is associated with a logical groupingof data associated with a file system, and primary data 1126, which isassociated with a logical grouping of data associated with email.Although for simplicity the logical grouping of data associated with thefile system is referred to as a file system sub-client, and the logicalgrouping of data associated with the email is referred to as an emailsub-client, the techniques described with respect to FIG. 1E can beutilized in conjunction with data that is organized in a variety ofother manners.

As indicated by the dashed box, the second media agent 144B and the tapelibrary 108B are “off-site”, and may therefore be remotely located fromthe other components in the information management system 100 (e.g., ina different city, office building, etc.). Indeed, “off-site” may referto a magnetic tape located in storage, which must be manually retrievedand loaded into a tape drive to be read. In this manner, informationstored on the tape library 108B may provide protection in the event of adisaster or other failure.

The file system sub-client and its associated primary data 112A incertain embodiments generally comprise information generated by the filesystem and/or operating system of the client computing device 102, andcan include, for example, file system data (e.g., regular files, filetables, mount points, etc.), operating system data (e.g., registries,event logs, etc.), and the like. The e-mail sub-client, on the otherhand, and its associated primary data 112B, include data generated by ane-mail application operating on the client computing device 102, and caninclude mailbox information, folder information, emails, attachments,associated database information, and the like. As described above, thesub-clients can be logical containers, and the data included in thecorresponding primary data 112A, 112B may or may not be storedcontiguously.

The exemplary storage policy 148A includes backup copy preferences (orrule set) 160, disaster recovery copy preferences rule set 162, andcompliance copy preferences or rule set 164. The backup copy rule set160 specifies that it is associated with a file system sub-client 166and an email sub-client 168. Each of these sub-clients 166, 168 areassociated with the particular client computing device 102. The backupcopy rule set 160 further specifies that the backup operation will bewritten to the disk library 108A, and designates a particular mediaagent 144A to convey the data to the disk library 108A. Finally, thebackup copy rule set 160 specifies that backup copies created accordingto the rule set 160 are scheduled to be generated on an hourly basis andto be retained for 30 days. In some other embodiments, schedulinginformation is not included in the storage policy 148A, and is insteadspecified by a separate scheduling policy.

The disaster recovery copy rule set 162 is associated with the same twosub-clients 166, 168. However, the disaster recovery copy rule set 162is associated with the tape library 108B, unlike the backup copy ruleset 160. Moreover, the disaster recovery copy rule set 162 specifiesthat a different media agent, namely 144B, will be used to convey thedata to the tape library 108B. As indicated, disaster recovery copiescreated according to the rule set 162 will be retained for 60 days, andwill be generated on a daily basis. Disaster recovery copies generatedaccording to the disaster recovery copy rule set 162 can provideprotection in the event of a disaster or other catastrophic data lossthat would affect the backup copy 116A maintained on the disk library108A.

The compliance copy rule set 164 is only associated with the emailsub-client 168, and not the file system sub-client 166. Compliancecopies generated according to the compliance copy rule set 164 willtherefore not include primary data 112A from the file system sub-client166. For instance, the organization may be under an obligation to storeand maintain copies of email data for a particular period of time (e.g.,10 years) to comply with state or federal regulations, while similarregulations do not apply to the file system data. The compliance copyrule set 164 is associated with the same tape library 108B and mediaagent 144B as the disaster recovery copy rule set 162, although adifferent storage device or media agent could be used in otherembodiments. Finally, the compliance copy rule set 164 specifies thatcopies generated under the compliance copy rule set 164 will be retainedfor 10 years, and will be generated on a quarterly basis.

At step 1, the storage manager 140 initiates a backup operationaccording to the backup copy rule set 160. For instance, a schedulingservice running on the storage manager 140 accesses schedulinginformation from the backup copy rule set 160 or a separate schedulingpolicy associated with the client computing device 102, and initiates abackup copy operation on an hourly basis. Thus, at the scheduled timeslot the storage manager 140 sends instructions to the client computingdevice 102 (i.e., to both data agent 142A and data agent 142B) to beginthe backup operation.

At step 2, the file system data agent 142A and the email data agent 142Boperating on the client computing device 102 respond to the instructionsreceived from the storage manager 140 by accessing and processing theprimary data 112A, 112B involved in the copy operation, which can befound in primary storage device 104. Because the operation is a backupcopy operation, the data agent(s) 142A, 142B may format the data into abackup format or otherwise process the data.

At step 3, the client computing device 102 communicates the retrieved,processed data to the first media agent 144A, as directed by the storagemanager 140, according to the backup copy rule set 160. In some otherembodiments, the information management system 100 may implement aload-balancing, availability-based, or other appropriate algorithm toselect from the available set of media agents 144A, 144B. Regardless ofthe manner the media agent 144A is selected, the storage manager 140 mayfurther keep a record in the storage manager database 146 of theassociation between the selected media agent 144A and the clientcomputing device 102 and/or between the selected media agent 144A andthe backup copy 116A.

The target media agent 144A receives the data from the client computingdevice 102, and at step 4 conveys the data to the disk library 108A tocreate the backup copy 116A, again at the direction of the storagemanager 140 and according to the backup copy rule set 160. The secondarystorage device 108A can be selected in other ways. For instance, themedia agent 144A may have a dedicated association with a particularsecondary storage device(s), or the storage manager 140 or media agent144A may select from a plurality of secondary storage devices, e.g.,according to availability, using one of the techniques described in U.S.Pat. No. 7,246,207, which is incorporated by reference herein.

The media agent 144A can also update its index 153 to include dataand/or metadata related to the backup copy 116A, such as informationindicating where the backup copy 116A resides on the disk library 108A,data and metadata for cache retrieval, etc. The storage manager 140 maysimilarly update its index 150 to include information relating to thestorage operation, such as information relating to the type of storageoperation, a physical location associated with one or more copiescreated by the storage operation, the time the storage operation wasperformed, status information relating to the storage operation, thecomponents involved in the storage operation, and the like. In somecases, the storage manager 140 may update its index 150 to include someor all of the information stored in the index 153 of the media agent144A. After the 30 day retention period expires, the storage manager 140instructs the media agent 144A to delete the backup copy 116A from thedisk library 108A. Indexes 150 and/or 153 are updated accordingly.

At step 5, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of a disasterrecovery copy 1166 according to the disaster recovery copy rule set 162.

At step 6, illustratively based on the instructions received from thestorage manager 140 at step 5, the specified media agent 144B retrievesthe most recent backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A.

At step 7, again at the direction of the storage manager 140 and asspecified in the disaster recovery copy rule set 162, the media agent144B uses the retrieved data to create a disaster recovery copy 1166 onthe tape library 1086. In some cases, the disaster recovery copy 1166 isa direct, mirror copy of the backup copy 116A, and remains in the backupformat. In other embodiments, the disaster recovery copy 1166 may begenerated in some other manner, such as by using the primary data 112A,112B from the primary storage device 104 as source data. The disasterrecovery copy operation is initiated once a day and the disasterrecovery copies 116B are deleted after 60 days; indexes are updatedaccordingly when/after each information management operation isexecuted/completed.

At step 8, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of acompliance copy 116C, according to the compliance copy rule set 164. Forinstance, the storage manager 140 instructs the media agent 144B tocreate the compliance copy 116C on the tape library 108B at step 9, asspecified in the compliance copy rule set 164. In the example, thecompliance copy 116C is generated using the disaster recovery copy 1166.In other embodiments, the compliance copy 116C is instead generatedusing either the primary data 112B corresponding to the email sub-clientor using the backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A as source data.As specified, in the illustrated example, compliance copies 116C arecreated quarterly, and are deleted after ten years, and indexes are keptup-to-date accordingly.

While not shown in FIG. 1E, at some later point in time, a restoreoperation can be initiated involving one or more of the secondary copies116A, 1166, 116C. As one example, a user may manually initiate a restoreof the backup copy 116A by interacting with the user interface 158 ofthe storage manager 140. The storage manager 140 then accesses data inits index 150 (and/or the respective storage policy 148A) associatedwith the selected backup copy 116A to identify the appropriate mediaagent 144A and/or secondary storage device 108A.

In other cases, a media agent may be selected for use in the restoreoperation based on a load balancing algorithm, an availability basedalgorithm, or other criteria. The selected media agent 144A retrievesthe data from the disk library 108A. For instance, the media agent 144Amay access its index 153 to identify a location of the backup copy 116Aon the disk library 108A, or may access location information residing onthe disk 108A itself.

When the backup copy 116A was recently created or accessed, the mediaagent 144A accesses a cached version of the backup copy 116A residing inthe index 153, without having to access the disk library 108A for someor all of the data. Once it has retrieved the backup copy 116A, themedia agent 144A communicates the data to the source client computingdevice 102. Upon receipt, the file system data agent 142A and the emaildata agent 142B may unpackage (e.g., restore from a backup format to thenative application format) the data in the backup copy 116A and restorethe unpackaged data to the primary storage device 104.

Exemplary Applications of Storage Policies

The storage manager 140 may permit a user to specify aspects of thestorage policy 148A. For example, the storage policy can be modified toinclude information governance policies to define how data should bemanaged in order to comply with a certain regulation or businessobjective. The various policies may be stored, for example, in themanagement database 146. An information governance policy may comprise aclassification policy, which is described herein. An informationgovernance policy may align with one or more compliance tasks that areimposed by regulations or business requirements. Examples of informationgovernance policies might include a Sarbanes-Oxley policy, a HIPAApolicy, an electronic discovery (E-Discovery) policy, and so on.

Information governance policies allow administrators to obtain differentperspectives on all of an organization's online and offline data,without the need for a dedicated data silo created solely for eachdifferent viewpoint. As described previously, the data storage systemsherein build a centralized index that reflects the contents of adistributed data set that spans numerous clients and storage devices,including both primary and secondary copies, and online and offlinecopies. An organization may apply multiple information governancepolicies in a top-down manner over that unified data set and indexingschema in order to permit an organization to view and manipulate thesingle data set through different lenses, each of which is adapted to aparticular compliance or business goal. Thus, for example, by applyingan E-discovery policy and a Sarbanes-Oxley policy, two different groupsof users in an organization can conduct two very different analyses ofthe same underlying physical set of data copies, which may bedistributed throughout the organization and information managementsystem.

A classification policy defines a taxonomy of classification terms ortags relevant to a compliance task and/or business objective. Aclassification policy may also associate a defined tag with aclassification rule. A classification rule defines a particularcombination of criteria, such as users who have created, accessed ormodified a document or data object; file or application types; contentor metadata keywords; clients or storage locations; dates of datacreation and/or access; review status or other status within a workflow(e.g., reviewed or un-reviewed); modification times or types ofmodifications; and/or any other data attributes in any combination,without limitation. A classification rule may also be defined usingother classification tags in the taxonomy. The various criteria used todefine a classification rule may be combined in any suitable fashion,for example, via Boolean operators, to define a complex classificationrule. As an example, an E-discovery classification policy might define aclassification tag “privileged” that is associated with documents ordata objects that (1) were created or modified by legal departmentstaff, or (2) were sent to or received from outside counsel via email,or (3) contain one of the following keywords: “privileged” or “attorney”or “counsel”, or other like terms.

One specific type of classification tag, which may be added to an indexat the time of indexing, is an entity tag. An entity tag may be, forexample, any content that matches a defined data mask format. Examplesof entity tags might include, e.g., social security numbers (e.g., anynumerical content matching the formatting mask XXX-XX-XXXX), credit cardnumbers (e.g., content having a 13-16 digit string of numbers), SKUnumbers, product numbers, etc.

A user may define a classification policy by indicating criteria,parameters or descriptors of the policy via a graphical user interface,such as a form or page with fields to be filled in, pull-down menus orentries allowing one or more of several options to be selected, buttons,sliders, hypertext links or other known user interface tools forreceiving user input, etc. For example, a user may define certain entitytags, such as a particular product number or project ID code that isrelevant in the organization. In some implementations, theclassification policy can be implemented using cloud-based techniques.For example, the storage devices may be cloud storage devices, and thestorage manager 140 may execute cloud service provider API over anetwork to classify data stored on cloud storage devices.

Exemplary Secondary Copy Formatting

The formatting and structure of secondary copies 116 can vary, dependingon the embodiment. In some cases, secondary copies 116 are formatted asa series of logical data units or “chunks” (e.g., 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4GB, or 8 GB chunks). This can facilitate efficient communication andwriting to secondary storage devices 108, e.g., according to resourceavailability. For example, a single secondary copy 116 may be written ona chunk-by-chunk basis to a single secondary storage device 108 oracross multiple secondary storage devices 108. In some cases, users canselect different chunk sizes, e.g., to improve throughput to tapestorage devices.

Generally, each chunk can include a header and a payload. The payloadcan include files (or other data units) or subsets thereof included inthe chunk, whereas the chunk header generally includes metadata relatingto the chunk, some or all of which may be derived from the payload. Forexample, during a secondary copy operation, the media agent 144, storagemanager 140, or other component may divide the associated files intochunks and generate headers for each chunk by processing the constituentfiles. The headers can include a variety of information such as fileidentifier(s), volume(s), offset(s), or other information associatedwith the payload data items, a chunk sequence number, etc. Importantly,in addition to being stored with the secondary copy 116 on the secondarystorage device 108, the chunk headers can also be stored to the index153 of the associated media agent(s) 144 and/or the index 150. This isuseful in some cases for providing faster processing of secondary copies116 during restores or other operations. In some cases, once a chunk issuccessfully transferred to a secondary storage device 108, thesecondary storage device 108 returns an indication of receipt, e.g., tothe media agent 144 and/or storage manager 140, which may update theirrespective indexes 153, 150 accordingly. During restore, chunks may beprocessed (e.g., by the media agent 144) according to the information inthe chunk header to reassemble the files.

Data can also be communicated within the information management system100 in data channels that connect the client computing devices 102 tothe secondary storage devices 108. These data channels can be referredto as “data streams”, and multiple data streams can be employed toparallelize an information management operation, improving data transferrate, among providing other advantages. Example data formattingtechniques including techniques involving data streaming, chunking, andthe use of other data structures in creating copies (e.g., secondarycopies) are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,315,923 and 8,156,086, and8,578,120, each of which is incorporated by reference herein.

FIGS. 1F and 1G are diagrams of example data streams 170 and 171,respectively, which may be employed for performing data storageoperations. Referring to FIG. 1F, the data agent 142 forms the datastream 170 from the data associated with a client computing device 102(e.g., primary data 112). The data stream 170 is composed of multiplepairs of stream header 172 and stream data (or stream payload) 174. Thedata streams 170 and 171 shown in the illustrated example are for asingle-instanced storage operation, and a stream payload 174 thereforemay include both single-instance (“SI”) data and/or non-SI data. Astream header 172 includes metadata about the stream payload 174. Thismetadata may include, for example, a length of the stream payload 174,an indication of whether the stream payload 174 is encrypted, anindication of whether the stream payload 174 is compressed, an archivefile identifier (ID), an indication of whether the stream payload 174 issingle instanceable, and an indication of whether the stream payload 174is a start of a block of data.

Referring to FIG. 1G, the data stream 171 has the stream header 172 andstream payload 174 aligned into multiple data blocks. In this example,the data blocks are of size 64 KB. The first two stream header 172 andstream payload 174 pairs comprise a first data block of size 64 KB. Thefirst stream header 172 indicates that the length of the succeedingstream payload 174 is 63 KB and that it is the start of a data block.The next stream header 172 indicates that the succeeding stream payload174 has a length of 1 KB and that it is not the start of a new datablock. Immediately following stream payload 174 is a pair comprising anidentifier header 176 and identifier data 178. The identifier header 176includes an indication that the succeeding identifier data 178 includesthe identifier for the immediately previous data block. The identifierdata 178 includes the identifier that the data agent 142 generated forthe data block. The data stream 171 also includes other stream header172 and stream payload 174 pairs, which may be for SI data and/or fornon-SI data.

FIG. 1H is a diagram illustrating the data structures 180 that may beused to store blocks of SI data and non-SI data on the storage device(e.g., secondary storage device 108). According to certain embodiments,the data structures 180 do not form part of a native file system of thestorage device. The data structures 180 include one or more volumefolders 182, one or more chunk folders 184/185 within the volume folder182, and multiple files within the chunk folder 184. Each chunk folder184/185 includes a metadata file 186/187, a metadata index file 188/189,one or more container files 190/191/193, and a container index file192/194. The metadata file 186/187 stores non-SI data blocks as well aslinks to SI data blocks stored in container files. The metadata indexfile 188/189 stores an index to the data in the metadata file 186/187.The container files 190/191/193 store SI data blocks. The containerindex file 192/194 stores an index to the container files 190/191/193.Among other things, the container index file 192/194 stores anindication of whether a corresponding block in a container file190/191/193 is referred to by a link in a metadata file 186/187. Forexample, data block B2 in the container file 190 is referred to by alink in the metadata file 187 in the chunk folder 185. Accordingly, thecorresponding index entry in the container index file 192 indicates thatthe data block B2 in the container file 190 is referred to. As anotherexample, data block B1 in the container file 191 is referred to by alink in the metadata file 187, and so the corresponding index entry inthe container index file 192 indicates that this data block is referredto.

As an example, the data structures 180 illustrated in FIG. 1H may havebeen created as a result of two storage operations involving two clientcomputing devices 102. For example, a first storage operation on a firstclient computing device 102 could result in the creation of the firstchunk folder 184, and a second storage operation on a second clientcomputing device 102 could result in the creation of the second chunkfolder 185. The container files 190/191 in the first chunk folder 184would contain the blocks of SI data of the first client computing device102. If the two client computing devices 102 have substantially similardata, the second storage operation on the data of the second clientcomputing device 102 would result in the media agent 144 storingprimarily links to the data blocks of the first client computing device102 that are already stored in the container files 190/191. Accordingly,while a first storage operation may result in storing nearly all of thedata subject to the storage operation, subsequent storage operationsinvolving similar data may result in substantial data storage spacesavings, because links to already stored data blocks can be storedinstead of additional instances of data blocks.

If the operating system of the secondary storage computing device 106 onwhich the media agent 144 operates supports sparse files, then when themedia agent 144 creates container files 190/191/193, it can create themas sparse files. A sparse file is type of file that may include emptyspace (e.g., a sparse file may have real data within it, such as at thebeginning of the file and/or at the end of the file, but may also haveempty space in it that is not storing actual data, such as a contiguousrange of bytes all having a value of zero). Having the container files190/191/193 be sparse files allows the media agent 144 to free up spacein the container files 190/191/193 when blocks of data in the containerfiles 190/191/193 no longer need to be stored on the storage devices. Insome examples, the media agent 144 creates a new container file190/191/193 when a container file 190/191/193 either includes 100 blocksof data or when the size of the container file 190 exceeds 50 MB. Inother examples, the media agent 144 creates a new container file190/191/193 when a container file 190/191/193 satisfies other criteria(e.g., it contains from approximately 100 to approximately 1000 blocksor when its size exceeds approximately 50 MB to 1 GB).

In some cases, a file on which a storage operation is performed maycomprise a large number of data blocks. For example, a 100 MB file maycomprise 400 data blocks of size 256 KB. If such a file is to be stored,its data blocks may span more than one container file, or even more thanone chunk folder. As another example, a database file of 20 GB maycomprise over 40,000 data blocks of size 512 KB. If such a database fileis to be stored, its data blocks will likely span multiple containerfiles, multiple chunk folders, and potentially multiple volume folders.Restoring such files may require accessing multiple container files,chunk folders, and/or volume folders to obtain the requisite datablocks.

Exemplary File Manager Integration with Virtualization in an InformationManagement System, Including User Control and Storage Management ofVirtual Machines

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating some salient portions of aninformation management system 200 comprising file manager integrationwith virtualization according to an illustrative embodiment of thepresent invention System 200 comprises: primary storage subsystem 117comprising file manager application 201; secondary storage subsystem118; storage manager 240 comprising VM management interface module 241and management database 246; and console 291. The components areinterconnected as shown by communication pathways 214-P, 214-PS, and214-S, and logical communication path 281. A user is depicted operatingconsole 291.

File manager application 201 and other relevant components of primarystorage subsystem 117 and secondary storage subsystem 118 are describedin more detail in a subsequent figure. Primary storage subsystem 117 ispart of a production environment that is associated with system 200.

Communication pathways 214-P, 214-PS, and 214-S are analogous tocommunication pathways 114 described in more detail above, and mayadditionally carry new and different message sets than the traditionalpathways 114, including new messages that pertain to the presentinvention as described herein.

Storage manager 240 is analogous to storage manager 140, andadditionally comprises functionality and information for interoperatingwith the illustrative file manager application 201, e.g., supportingprovisioning operations and storage operations for one or more VMs.

VM management interface module 241 is a functional component of storagemanager 240, and may be implemented as executable software and/orfirmware, which executes on the underlying computing device that hostsstorage manager 240. When it executes according to the illustrativeembodiment, module 241 is largely responsible for interoperating withthe illustrative file manager 201, e.g., via logical communication path281, as described in further detail below and in subsequent figures. Forexample, VM interface module 241 may execute functions in response torequests/commands received from file manager application 201, such asadministering a new VM or launching a backup operation of a VM, etc. VMmanagement interface module 241 may further report/respond to filemanager application 201, such as providing an ID for a newly created VM,or reporting the completion of a VM backup/archive/restore operation. VMmanagement interface module 241 may further interoperate withcomponent(s) of primary storage subsystem 117, such as VM host computingdevices 203 and client computing devices 102 (see, e.g., FIG. 2B).Furthermore, VM management interface module 241 may also interoperatewith component(s) of secondary storage subsystem 118, such as mediaagent 144, etc.

VM management interface module 241 is shown herein as a distinctcomponent to ease understanding of the present disclosure, however,alternative embodiments are also possible within the scope of thepresent invention. Module 241 may be embodied as a unified module withinstorage manager 240, layered on existing storage manager code, or may bea logical construct whose functionality is distributed through one ormore other functional modules of the storage manager, such as managementagent 154 and/or jobs agent 156—and in any combination thereof. In somealternative embodiments, VM management interface module 241 may executeon another computing component that is physically distinct from storagemanager 240, such as on a dedicated server that operates in conjunctionwith storage manager 240, but which may or may not be a logicalcomponent of storage manager 240.

Management database 246 is analogous to management database 146described in detail above and may comprise additional informationspecifically pertaining to the virtual machines and their associatedfiles that operate and reside in information management system 200—andparticularly with respect to user management of the VMs. For example,management database 246 may comprise information that associates a givenuser with one or more VMs and their associated files in order to enablethe given user to manage those particular VMs as described herein. Forexample, management database 246 may further comprise metadata about VMmanagement operations executed by the user according to the illustrativeembodiment, such as a record indicating that the user activated a VM,cloned a VM, shut down a VM, backed up a VM, restored a VM, or any otheruser-initiated operation, and/or any combination thereof withoutlimitation. For example, management database 246 may further compriseinformation management policies that are particularly directed to VMs,such as VM lifecycle policies, and/or other relevant informationmanagement, such as storage policies, scheduling policies, etc., thatpertain to the VMs and/or their associated files in system 200.Furthermore, management database 246 may further comprise metadata aboutinformation management jobs that operated on the VMs, such asidentifying which media agent backed up a given VM, when a snapshot of aVM was taken, which secondary storage device comprises an archived VM,etc.

Logical communication path 281, between file manager application 201 andVM management interface module 241, carries messages between these twocomponents, such as those illustrated above. The path is depicted hereto ease understanding of the present disclosure, but the physicalinfrastructure for path 281 may be communication pathway 214-P or anyother suitable electronic communications.

Console 291 is a component well known in the art, which, according tothe illustrative embodiment, displays to a human user an interfaceprovided by file manager application 201, giving the human user accessto a client computing device 102 that operates in primary storagesubsystem 117. As depicted here by the “My Virtual Machines” callout,the user may manage his/her associated VMs via console 291 according tothe functionality of system 200 described herein. In general, the humanuser referred to herein in respect to system 200 is an end-user of aclient computing device 102, and is generally understood to lackadministrative privileges to system 200.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating the exemplary file managerapplication 201, executing on client computing device 102, and anexemplary set of virtual machines VM1-VM4 having associated files, inthe context of the exemplary information management system 200. Theexample system 200 may comprise several elements described above (e.g.,client computing device(s) 102 and associated applications and dataagents, primary storage devices 104-1, 104-2, secondary storagecomputing device(s) 106, secondary storage device(s) 108, storagemanager 240, etc.), and additionally comprises: a file managerapplication 201; one or more virtual machine host computing devices (“VMHOST 1” and “VM HOST 2”) 203-1, 203-2; one or more production virtualmachines (“VM1”, “VM2”, and “VM3”), 211, 212, 213 residing on respectiveones of the host computing devices 203; primary data including one ormore files (“VM1 files”, “VM2 files”, and “VM3 files”) 221, 222, 223associated with the respective virtual machines 211, 212, 213 and storedin the primary storage devices 104-1, 104-2; one or more secondarystorage computing device(s) 106, comprising a respective media agent 144and an index (or index cache) 153; one or more secondary storagedevice(s) 108; secondary copies of virtual machines and/or theirrespective associated files (“VM1”/“VM1 FILES”, “VM2”/“VM2 FILES”,“VM3”/“VM3 FILES”, and “VM4”/“VM4 FILES”) 241/231, 242/232, 243/233,244/234 stored in secondary storage device 108. Client computing device102 and primary storage devices 104-1 and 104-2 are in the primarystorage subsystem 117; secondary storage computing device 106 andsecondary storage device 108 are in the secondary storage subsystem 118.Although not expressly depicted here, inter-component connectivity isinherent in accordance with the architecture of information managementsystem 200 as described in preceding figures.

File manager application 201 resides and executes on client computingdevice 102 in the production environment that comprises primary storagesubsystem 117. File manager application 201 is at least partiallyresponsible for presenting a user interface to a user of the clientcomputing device 102 (e.g., via console 291); receiving and interpretingcommands from the user; retrieving (directly or indirectly via othercomponents, such as storage manager 240) information necessary toperform the described functionality, e.g., displaying metadata; andgenerating/implementing commands (directly or indirectly via othercomponents, such as storage manager 240) that are necessary to performthe described functionality, e.g., shutting down a VM, creating a newVM, executing a storage management operation, such as a backup or arestore, etc.

In the exemplary embodiment, file manager application 201 is embodied asa plugin enhancement to a legacy file manager, e.g., Windows Explorer,etc. In alternative embodiments, file manager 201 may be separate andindependent from any file manager and may execute as a stand-aloneapplication on client computing device 102. As a plug-in embodiment,file manager application 201 is not limited to working with WindowsExplorer, and may be implemented as a plugin for any legacy file manageron any operating system, e.g., Unix, Linux, Mac OS, Android, etc.Likewise, as a stand-alone file manager, application 201 is not limitedto any particular operating system, and may execute on Windows operatingsystem, Unix, Linux, Mac OS, Android, etc., without limitation. (NB: oneor more of these legacy file managers and/or operating systemdesignations may be trademarks or service marks of entities other thanthe applicant).

VM1 211 is a first virtual machine that resides and executes on a firsthost computing device 203-1, as is well known in the art. Files that areassociated with VM1, e.g., VM1 files 221, are stored in primary storagedevice 104-1 as shown.

VM2 212 is a second virtual machine that also resides and executes onthe first host computing device 203-1, as is well known in the art.Files that are associated with VM2, e.g., VM2 files 222, are stored inprimary storage device 104-1 as shown.

VM3 213 is a virtual machine that resides and executes on the secondhost computing device 203-2, as is well known in the art. Files that areassociated with VM3, e.g., VM3 files 223, are stored in primary storagedevice 104-2 as shown. While the VM hosts 203 are shown separate fromthe client computing device(s) 102, in some other cases one or moreclient computing devices 102 may serve as virtual machine hosts. Thus, aVM may co-reside with file manager application 201 on a given clientcomputing device 102.

It should be noted that the exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention may support any number of virtual machines residing on hostcomputing devices 203, without limitation. Furthermore, the exemplaryembodiment may support any number of secondary copies (e.g., back-upcopies and/or archived copies) of virtual machines and any number ofvirtual-machine-associated files that are in secondary storage subsystem118.

VM1 241 is a backup copy of VM1 211, and resides as a secondary copy insecondary storage on secondary storage device 108. Thus, VM1 is said tobe represented in secondary storage by VM1 241. Metadata for VM1 241 waspreviously collected, during the backup operation illustrativelyperformed by media agent 144, into index 153 on secondary storagecomputing device 106. Furthermore, some of the metadata may have beenreported by media agent 144 to storage manager 240, which may havestored it to management database 246, and/or relayed it to clientcomputing device 102 for display to the user by file manager application201. Although VM1 241 is shown here as a backup copy, for purposes ofexemplary embodiments of the present invention VM1 241 may alternativelybe an archived copy of VM1 211 or some other type of secondary copy,such as a snapshot, a replication copy, etc.

VM1 files 231 is a backup copy of VM1 files 221, and resides as asecondary copy in secondary storage devices 108. Metadata for VM1 files231 was previously collected, during the backup operation, into index153. Furthermore, some of the metadata may have been reported by mediaagent 144 to storage manager 240, which may have stored it to managementdatabase 246, and/or relayed it to client computing device 102 fordisplay to the user by file manager application 201. Although VM1 files231 is shown here as a backup copy, VM1 files 231 may be alternativelyembodied as an archived copy or some other type of secondary copy, suchas a snapshot, a replication copy, etc. Moreover, VM files may beorganized into folders, which may also reside in primary storage or incorresponding secondary storage.

Like VM1 241 and VM1 files 231, VM2 242/VM2 files 232 and VM3 243/VM3files 233 respectively represent VM2 and VM3 and their associated filesin secondary storage, as well as indexing, reporting, relaying, etc. asdescribed in reference to VM1 241 and VM1 files 231.

VM4 244 is an archived copy of VM4, and VM4 files 234 is an archivedcopy of VM4 files, which only reside in secondary storage on secondarystorage device 108 in archived form. In other words, VM4 and itsassociated files are not present in the production environment thatcomprises primary storage subsystem 117. Metadata for VM4 244/VM4 files234 was previously collected, during the archiving operation, into index153. Furthermore, as with VM1 241, some of the metadata may have beenreported by media agent 144 to storage manager 240, which may havestored it to management database 246, and/or relayed it to clientcomputing device 102 for display to the user by file manager application201.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary display window of the exemplary filemanager application 201. The display window comprises a window 301entitled “MY VIRTUAL MACHINES” that comprises an icon for each virtualmachine in information management system 200 that is associated with thepresent user. Here, VM1, VM2, VM3, and VM4 are associated with the user,and therefore window 301 comprises an icon that corresponds to each ofthese virtual machines, i.e., VM1 icon 303-1, VM2 icon 303-2, VM3 icon303-3, and VM4 icon 303-4, respectively. When embodied as a plug-in to alegacy Windows Explorer file manager, file manager application 201 maygenerate a window 301 that is embodied as a Libraries folder (e.g.,named “My Virtual Machines,” which contains a list of Windows-basedvirtual machines owned by the logged-in user. When opened by the user,the folder displays the VM icons 303.

In addition to displaying the icons 303, file manager application 201additionally provides the user with functionality to search, filter,control, and provision virtual machines and/or associated files, asdescribed in further detail below. For example, when the user selects agiven icon, e.g., VM4 icon 303-4, file manager application 201 mayrespond by presenting a virtual view of the VM4 disk structure createdby the secondary copy operation, such as by an indexing browse at themedia agent that performed the secondary copy operation, e.g., browsingindex 153 at media agent 144. To access the contents of VM4, clientcomputing device 102 must be in communication with storage manager 240as well as media agent 144, as shown and described in the precedingfigures. As explained earlier, each icon may further provide the userwith the ability to drill down and obtain additional details about therespective VM. More details are given in regard to block 402 below andin subsequent paragraphs.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary flow chart depicting method 400, whichcomprises at least some of the functionality of exemplary file managerapplication 201. As noted earlier, the application illustrativelyexecutes on client computing device 102, and therefore user commands arereceived at and user interface displays are presented at clientcomputing device 102, e.g., via console 291. As noted, file managerapplication 201 may execute as a stand-alone application or as a plug-into a legacy file manager (e.g., a special-purpose button, drop-down menuitem, tab, etc.).

At block 401, client computing device 102 receives a user command toopen file manager application 201. This may mean that, for example, on aWindows computing device executing Windows Explorer configured with thefile manager application 201 plug-in, the user accesses a Librariesfolder named “My Virtual Machines.”

At block 402, file manager application 201 causes client computingdevice 102 to display (e.g., via console 291) a user interface thatcomprises one or more indications of a set of virtual machines that areassociated with the present user of client computing device 102 (e.g.,the logged-in user). An exemplary embodiment of this is shown in FIG. 3,where the user interface presented is window 301 (e.g., “My VirtualMachines”) comprising indications in the form of icons 303 for the setof virtual machines VM1-VM4 that are associated with the user. Theinformation presented to the user in window 301 may be based on one ormore of the following data sources accessed by application 201: a localdata structure (not shown) associated with application 201, e.g., storedin primary storage device 104-1 or in client computing device 102;management database 246 in (or associated with) storage manager 240;index 153 or another data structure in (or associated with) media agent144 (e.g., obtained directly from media agent 144 or indirectly viastorage manager 240); and/or any combination thereof. In other words,the VM-related information may be distributed throughout informationmanagement system 200, and/or may be locally cached and/or obtained inreal time by file manager application 201 in response to user actions,e.g., in response to the user refreshing window 301. To present anup-to-date set of user-associated VMs for example, file managerapplication 201 may query storage manager 240, which may in turn consultmanagement database 246, VM hosts(s) 203, and/or one or more mediaagent(s) 144 in information management system 200.

At block 403, client computing device 102 receives a user command toselect a virtual machine from the displayed set, e.g., selecting one ofthe icons presented.

At block 404, in response to the user command, file manager application201 may determine whether the selected virtual machine is represented insecondary storage, e.g., whether it has been previously moved by asecondary copy operation to secondary storage within informationmanagement system 200, e.g., archived, backed up, (e.g., via snapshot,replication, etc.). This information may be obtained from managementdatabase 246 associated with storage manager 240. If a secondary copyoperation was previously performed on the selected virtual machineand/or its associated files (e.g., a backup, archiving, a snapshot,etc.), management database 246 will so indicate and further indicate theelement(s) of secondary storage subsystem 118 that performed theoperation, e.g., identifying media agent 144. In the exemplaryembodiment depicted here, management database 246 indicates to filemanager application 201 (e.g., via logical communication path 281) thatthe operation was performed by media agent 144 and further that metadatacollected during the execution of the secondary copy job is stored inindex 153, which can be found on secondary storage computing device 106.In this case, control passes to block 405.

On the other hand, if the selected virtual machine has not beenpreviously represented in secondary storage (e.g., no backups, noarchiving, etc.), management database 246 may so indicate and anymetadata associated with the selected virtual machine will only beavailable to file manager application 201 from the VM's local host,e.g., host computing device 203-1 or 203-2. In this case, control passesto block 406.

At block 405, which illustratively applies to VMs that are representedin secondary storage, file manager application 201 retrieves informationabout the selected virtual machine from the index of the relevant mediaagent, e.g., from index 153 associated with media agent 144. Theretrieval operation may be a direct query by file manager application201 to media agent 144 and/or index 153, or may be performed indirectly,via storage manager 240, which in turn may query the other component(s)and may report results to file manager application 201. As noted, themetadata for the selected virtual machine and its associated files isavailable from the index 153, having been previously collected duringthe storage management operation, e.g., a backup job, an archiving job,etc. File manager application 201 retrieves at least some of theinformation necessary to respond to the user command received at block403, e.g., details about the selected virtual machine (e.g., datecreated, date moved to secondary storage, etc.), details about filesassociated with the virtual machine, the timing of the secondary copyoperation, the location(s) in secondary storage of the VM and theassociated files, etc.

At block 406, client computer device 102 presents a user interfaceaccording to file manager application 201, e.g., via console 291.Accordingly, the user interface enables the user to manage existingand/or new virtual machines within information management system 200.The information presented to the user may be based on one or more of thefollowing data sources accessed by application 201: a local datastructure (not shown) associated with application 201, e.g., stored inprimary storage device 104-1 or in client computing device 102;management database 246 in storage manager 240; obtained from anothercomponent of system 200, e.g., from a VM host computing device such as203-1, from a media agent such as 144, etc., whether obtained directlyby file manager application 201 or via storage manager 240; and/or anycombination thereof. This block is described in more detail in asubsequent figure. After block 406 completes, control may pass back toan earlier block, such as block 403 for further commands to be receivedfrom the user. Alternatively, method 400 may end.

FIG. 5 depicts some additional detail of the functionality of block 406in the flow chart of FIG. 4. Accordingly, the exemplary file managerapplication 201 comprises one or more of the functionality of the blocksbelow.

At block 501, file manager application 201 enables the user to viewand/or browse, in reference to a selected VM, the properties andparameters thereof, as well as any associated files and/or folders andtheir respective properties. Example properties of a VM may include thehost name and guest operating system of the VM, the names of theassociated files, etc., without limitation. Example parameters mayinclude an amount of allocated memory, etc. without limitation.Depending on the type of virtual machine, the properties/parameters mayvary from type to type, and the file manager application 201 may operateaccordingly to display the appropriate information. File/folderproperties may include the size, owner, time saved, etc. withoutlimitation, and the relevant properties may vary depending on the typeof file. In regard to the present block, there is no limitation on thenumber and type of VMs and/or their respective associated files/foldersthat may be viewed and browsed, whether in primary storage (production)and/or in secondary storage.

At block 502, file manager application 201 enables the user to viewand/or browse data (e.g., metadata, properties, etc.) associated withstorage management operations for the selected VM, which includessearching and filtering capabilities. For example, a property for agiven VM may relate to whether a secondary copy is available insecondary storage subsystem 118 and may relate to data movementoperation(s) relative to the VM. For example, for VMs that arerepresented in secondary storage, such as illustrative VM4, the datathat may be viewed, searched, filtered, and/or presented here mayinclude the time the secondary copy VM4 244 was created, the type ofsecondary copy (e.g., snapshot, full backup, archive copy, replicationcopy, etc.), the identity of the media agent that performed theoperation (e.g., media agent 144), etc., the identity of the secondarystorage device where the secondary copy is stored, etc., withoutlimitation. For example, a user may use file manager application 201 todisplay all the job IDs associated with backing up the selected VM, andmay further search for job IDs of jobs that successfully completed,etc., without limitation. Other searching and filtering criteria mayinclude finding, e.g., virtual machines having certain properties, filescreated during a certain time interval, and other relevant metadata,etc.

In some embodiments, file manager application 201 may preferentiallysearch and display information about a given VM (e.g., metadata,properties, parameters, etc.) with respect to secondary storage (e.g.,118) rather than information from the production environment (e.g.,117); when no secondary storage information is available, informationfrom the production environment may then be made viewable/browsable byfile manager application 201. This may be advantageous by reducing thedrain on computing and communications resources in the productionenvironment (e.g., 117) when information may be retrieved from thesecondary storage subsystem (e.g., 118). In general, based on thefunctionality of the components of system 200 as described herein, block501 and 502 provide the user with visibility into all the VMs in system200 that are associated with the user, whether the VMs are in primarystorage (production environment, e.g., 117) and/or represented insecondary storage (e.g., 118), without limitation. Preferably, filemanager application 201 integrates the presentation of all theinformation into a consistent user interface for the user.

At block 503, file manager application 201 may enable the user toperform a number of operations that control the existing VMs (“controloperations” or “VM-control operations”) associated with the user insystem 200, including one or more of the following operations:

-   -   Shut down a VM,    -   Activate (or “power on”) a VM (e.g., a VM that was previously        configured but was not operational),    -   Restart a VM (e.g., a VM that was previously shut down),    -   Re-configure a VM (e.g., allocate more memory, use a different        disk, etc.),    -   Etc.

Furthermore, file manager application 201 may enable the user to furthermanage VMs through data movement operations by executing, on the VMsand/or their associated files and/or associated folders comprisingfiles, one or more of the following storage management operations:

-   -   Create/take a snapshot,    -   Create a backup (e.g., full backup, incremental backup,        differential backup, synthetic full, etc.),    -   Archive a VM/folder/file that was previously backed up,    -   Activate replication,    -   Restore from secondary storage, e.g., from a backup copy, from        an archive copy, etc.    -   Restore from secondary storage and overwrite a production VM,    -   Restore folder/file to user's client computing device, and    -   Restore folder/file to a production VM,    -   Etc.

Any and all of these secondary copies may be deduplicated orsingle-instanced as appropriate, without limitation to the presentinvention. It is to be understood that the above-recited lists are notexhaustive, and other information management operations may be madeavailable to the user, by file manager application 201, according to oneor more embodiment(s) of the present invention.

At block 504, file manager application 201 enables the user to provisionadditional VMs, by performing one or more of the following operations:

Create new VM,

Create a clone VM from another VM,

Configure any newly created VMs,

Etc.

Accordingly, a user using file manager application 201 may create andconfigure one or more new VMs, using an illustrative VM creation wizardthat may be part of file manager application 201. For example, thewizard may guide the user to specify one or more of the followingparameters (e.g., operational parameters) in order to successfullycreate and configure a new VM:

Identity of the VM pool that is to include the present VM,

VM name,

VM expiration date after which the VM is no longer operational,

VM description,

Template selection for the VM,

User details, such as user's login ID and a VM password,

Amount of memory to be allocated to the VM,

Number of virtual CPUs for the VM,

Number of virtual network interface cards (“NICs”) for the VM,

Maximum disk size,

Disk size for one or more disks, optionally according to the VMlifecycle policy,

Etc.

One or more of these parameters may be display-only as obtained by filemanager application 201 from a VM lifecycle policy that is separatelyadministered in storage manager 240. Once the VM is successfully createdand appropriate data structures in system 200 are updated accordingly(e.g., an index entry in management database 246, an index datastructure associated with file manager application 201 that is storedlocally on storage device 104-1, etc.), file manager application 201 maythen include and display the new VM in the “My Virtual Machines” window,e.g., window 301. It is to be understood that the above-recited listsare not exhaustive, and other parameters may be included in the wizardby file manager application 201, according to one or more embodiment(s)of the present invention.

The enumerated functionality above is presented without limitation, andit will be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art thatsubstantial additional functionality is enabled by the architecture ofinformation management system 200 and file manager application 201,according to the exemplary embodiment and other alternative embodiments.

FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary flow chart depicting method 600, whichcomprises some of the functionality of the illustrative storage manager240 operating relative to the exemplary file manager application 201within information management system 200.

At block 601, storage manager 240 may receive metadata from mediaagent(s) in the system, e.g., media agent 144, reporting on VM-relatedstorage management jobs executed by the media agent(s). Accordingly,storage manager 240 may update management database 246 (and/or anotherdata structure (not shown) that is associated with storage manager 240),which may comprise this and other metadata about storage management jobsthat may have been attempted, completed, and/or scheduled in system 200.For example, an update may comprise information about a backup job of acertain VM executed by a certain media agent, and identifying the indexcache, e.g., 153, which comprises additional metadata about the job. Forexample, an illustrative update may record that a backup of VM1 wasexecuted by media agent 144 at a certain time and stored in VM1 241 insecondary storage 108.

At block 602, storage manager 240 may receive metadata from file managerapplication 201 reporting on user-initiated control operations for oneor more VMs, e.g., the user has shut down VM1 211, the user hasactivated VM2 212, the user has restarted VM3 213, etc. For example, anillustrative update may record the identity of the user who initiatedthe operation, the identity of the subject VM, the action taken, e.g.,shut down, activate, restart, etc., and the present status of the VM,e.g., running, inactive, etc. Accordingly, storage manager 240 mayupdate management database 246 and/or another data structure (not shown)that is associated with storage manager 240, which may comprise this andother relevant metadata.

At block 603, storage manager 240 may receive a message/request fromfile manager application 201, e.g., sent when the user opens and/orrefreshes the “My Virtual Machines” window 301, indicating that the userwishes to view VM information in system 200. In response, storagemanager 240 may consult management database 246 and/or the relevantmedia agent(s) (e.g., index 153) for information about VMs that areassociated with the user. The storage manager 240 may collect therelevant information and may transmit the results to file managerapplication 201, which may then analyze, arrange, and display theresults for the user to view (see, e.g., window 301 in FIG. 3). Thisoperation may further execute to additional levels of detail as the userdrills down via file manager application 201, e.g., selecting an icon inwindow 301 to seek additional details about VM1 and all its associatedfiles, which may be found in primary storage and in secondary storage aswell. In a case when a VM is present in primary storage, storage manager240 may (in addition to consulting management database 246 and mediaagents) also consult data agents executing on one or more host computingdevices in the system, e.g., 203-1, 203-2, etc., before storage manager240 returns appropriate results to file manager application 201.

At block 604, storage manager 240 may receive message(s) from filemanager application 201 indicating that the user has initiated aprovisioning operation relative to a VM, such as create new VM, clone aVM, configure a new VM, re-configure an existing VM, etc. The message(s)may comprise relevant parameters supplied by the user, e.g., name of theVM, etc. In order to properly effectuate these user-initiated operationsin response to the received message(s), storage manager 240 may executeappropriate administrative operations in storage manager 240 itselfand/or in other relevant components of the information managementsystem, including the host computing device that may host the VM, e.g.,host computing device 203-1.

Thus, the user interface presented to the user to provision VMs mayinteroperate with storage manager 240 and other relevant components toperform the selected task(s) initiated by the user. For example, tocreate a new VM as initiated by the user, file manager application 201may collect relevant parameters from the user, e.g., name, type,capacity, host computing device, etc., and may transmit said parametersto storage manager 240, which in turn may transmit these and otherset-up parameters to the selected host computing device, e.g., 203-1 tocreate the VM thereon; storage manager 240 may then update managementdatabase 246 and report success to file manager application 201 asexplained further in regard to block 606 below.

At block 605, in response to message(s) from file manager application201 indicating that the user has initiated a storage managementoperation for a VM/folder/file (e.g., backup, restore, snapshot,archive, replicate, etc.), storage manager 240 may manage the operationaccordingly with one or more appropriate components of system 200. Forexample, storage manager 240 may instruct media agent 144 to execute theoperation e.g., backup, restore, archive, etc., in reference to the VMselected by the user. As in the preceding blocks, storage manager 240interoperates with file manager application 201 to perform the selectedtask(s) and to enable the file manager user interface to presentaccurate and appropriate information to the user. For example, after abackup is successfully completed, storage manager 240 may report jobsuccess to file manager application 201, which may then present a newicon or other indication to the user showing that a VM backup now existsin secondary storage. Storage manager 240 may then update managementdatabase 246 and as explained further in regard to block 606 below.

At block 606, storage manager 240 may report to file manager application201 the results of the administrative operations executed in thepreceding blocks 604 and/or 605 and may further report the success (orfailure) of the user-initiated operations, so that file managerapplication 201 may appropriately analyze, arrange, and present theinformation for the user to view.

For example, after storage manager 240 has accepted and implemented theparameters provided by the user (via file manager application 201) atblock 604, and any other relevant parameters needed to implement theuser's command, storage manager 240 may report success to file managerapplication 201, which may then display an appropriate indication to theuser, e.g., an icon, an operational parameter, an update to an existingdisplay, etc. Furthermore, storage manager 240 also may updatemanagement database 246 with appropriate information, such as anassociation between the user and the VM s/he created, an associationbetween the VM and the host computing device on which the VM mayexecute, e.g., 102, 203-1, 203-2, etc. Other relevant properties of theVM also may be stored in management database 246.

For example, following a user-initiated storage management operation(via file manager application 201) (e.g., back up, archive, restore,etc.) at block 605, storage manager 240 may update management database246 with appropriate information, such as a record of the user-initiatedstorage management operation that may include the user's identity, thetime of the operation, the identity of the media agent that executed theoperation, etc. Other relevant information about the operation also maybe stored in management database 246, e.g., the version of file managerapplication 201 at the time the user invoked the operation. Control maypass back to an earlier block, such as block 601 for further updates, ormethod 600 may end after block 606 completes.

In regard to the components, blocks, operations and/or sub-operationsdescribed in reference to FIGS. 2-6, other embodiments are possiblewithin the scope of the present invention, such that the above-recitedcomponents, steps, blocks, operations, and/ormessages/requests/queries/instructions are differently arranged,sequenced, sub-divided, organized, and/or combined. In some embodiments,a different component may initiate or execute a given operation. Forexample, in some embodiments, file manager application 201 may be partof storage manager 240 and only available to a user via storage manager240.

Example Embodiments

An exemplary method according to an illustrative embodiment maycomprise:

receiving, by a client computing device, which is a component of theinformation management system, a first command from a user to open afile manager application on the client computing device;

displaying, by the client computing device executing the file managerapplication, a user interface for a set of virtual machines in theinformation management system, wherein each of the virtual machines inthe set is associated with the user;

receiving, by the client computing device a second command from the userto select a virtual machine from the displayed set;

retrieving, by the client computing device, from a secondary storagecomputing device via a storage manager, metadata that was previouslycollected by the secondary storage computing device while performing atleast one storage management operation relative to the selected virtualmachine; and

displaying, by the client computing device via the user interface, atleast some of the retrieved metadata for the selected virtual machine.

An exemplary information management system according to an illustrativeembodiment may comprise:

a client computing device configured to execute a file managerapplication that is directed at managing at least one virtual machineassociated with a user of the information management system;

a secondary storage computing device comprising an index, wherein theindex comprises metadata that was previously collected from at least oneof a backup of the virtual machine and an archiving of the virtualmachine; and

wherein the client computing device, when executing the file managerapplication, is further configured to, in response to a first commandreceived from the user:

(i) retrieve at least some of the metadata from the index on thesecondary storage computing device, and

(ii) display at least some of the retrieved metadata to the user via auser interface presented by the file manager application.

Another illustrative method associated with an information managementsystem according to an illustrative embodiment may comprise:

receiving, by a client computing device, which is a component of theinformation management system, a first command from a user to open afile manager application on the client computing device;

displaying, by the client computing device executing the file managerapplication, a user interface for receiving commands from the user;

receiving, by the client computing device via the user interface asecond command from the user to create a new virtual machine in theinformation management system, wherein the command comprises one or moreuser-supplied parameters for the new virtual machine, wherein theuser-supplied parameters indicate a host computing device in theinformation management that is to host the new virtual machine;

transmitting, by the client computing device to a storage manager in theinformation management system, one or more messages comprising a requestto create the new virtual machine according to the one or moreuser-supplied parameters;

receiving, by the client computing device from the storage manager, oneor more messages comprising a confirmation that the new virtual machinehas been created in the information management system, hosted by thehost computing device, according to the one or more user-suppliedparameters; and

displaying, by the client computing device via the user interface, anindication that the virtual machine was successfully created.

The exemplary information management system may comprise: a clientcomputing device configured to execute a file manager application thatis directed at managing at least one virtual machine associated with auser; a secondary storage computing device comprising an index, whereinthe index comprises metadata that was previously collected from at leastone of a backup of the virtual machine and an archiving of the virtualmachine; and wherein the client computing device, when executing thefile manager application, is further configured to retrieve at leastsome of the metadata from the index on the secondary storage computingdevice, and to display at least some of the metadata to the user inresponse to receiving a first command from the user.

An exemplary method according to the exemplary information managementsystem may comprise: receiving, by a client computing device, a firstcommand from a user to open a file manager application on the clientcomputing device; displaying a user interface for a set of virtualmachines that are associated with the user; receiving a second commandfrom the user to select a virtual machine from the displayed set;retrieving, by the client computing device from at least one of astorage manager and a secondary storage computing device, metadata thatwas previously collected from at least one of a backup of the selectedvirtual machine and an archiving of the selected virtual machine; anddisplaying, by the client computing device via the user interface, atleast some of the retrieved metadata relative to the selected virtualmachine.

Another method according to the exemplary information management systemmay comprise: receiving, by a client computing device, a first commandfrom a user to open a file manager application on the client computingdevice; displaying a user interface for a set of virtual machines thatare associated with the user; receiving a second command from the userto select a virtual machine from the displayed set; retrieving, by theclient computing device from a secondary storage computing device,metadata that was previously collected from at least one of a backup ofthe selected virtual machine and an archiving of the selected virtualmachine; and executing a user-selected operation upon the selectedvirtual machine, wherein the user-selected operation comprises at leastone of:

(i) shutting down the selected virtual machine,

(ii) taking a snapshot of the selected virtual machine,

(iii) creating a clone of the selected virtual machine, and

(iv) configuring a parameter on the selected virtual machine.

Another method according to the exemplary information management systemmay comprise: receiving, by a client computing device, a first commandfrom a user to open a file manager application on the client computingdevice; displaying a user interface for a set of virtual machines thatare associated with the user, wherein the displaying is based onmetadata that was previously collected from at least one of a backup ofa virtual machine in the set and an archiving of the virtual machine inthe set, wherein the metadata is retrieved by the client computingdevice from a secondary storage computing device; receiving a secondcommand from the user to execute an operation; and based on the secondcommand received from the user, executing at least one of: (i) creatinga new virtual machine, and (ii) configuring a parameter on thenewly-created virtual machine.

TERMINOLOGY

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of“including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,”“coupled,” or any variant thereof means any connection or coupling,either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling orconnection between the elements can be physical, logical, or acombination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,”and words of similar import, when used in this application, refer tothis application as a whole and not to any particular portions of thisapplication. Where the context permits, words in the above DetailedDescription using the singular or plural number may also include theplural or singular number respectively. The word “or” in reference to alist of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretationsof the word: any one of the items in the list, all of the items in thelist, and any combination of the items in the list. Likewise the term“and/or” in reference to a list of two or more items, covers all of thefollowing interpretations of the word: any one of the items in the list,all of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in thelist.

Depending on the embodiment, certain operations, acts, events, orfunctions of any of the algorithms described herein can be performed ina different sequence, can be added, merged, or left out altogether(e.g., not all are necessary for the practice of the algorithms).Moreover, in certain embodiments, operations, acts, functions, or eventscan be performed concurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing,interrupt processing, or multiple processors or processor cores or onother parallel architectures, rather than sequentially.

Systems and modules described herein may comprise software, firmware,hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or hardwaresuitable for the purposes described herein. Software and other modulesmay reside and execute on servers, workstations, personal computers,computerized tablets, PDAs, and other computing devices suitable for thepurposes described herein. Software and other modules may be accessiblevia local memory, via a network, via a browser, or via other meanssuitable for the purposes described herein. Data structures describedherein may comprise computer files, variables, programming arrays,programming structures, or any electronic information storage schemes ormethods, or any combinations thereof, suitable for the purposesdescribed herein. User interface elements described herein may compriseelements from graphical user interfaces, interactive voice response,command line interfaces, and other suitable interfaces.

Further, the processing of the various components of the illustratedsystems can be distributed across multiple machines, networks, and othercomputing resources. In addition, two or more components of a system canbe combined into fewer components. Various components of the illustratedsystems can be implemented in one or more virtual machines, rather thanin dedicated computer hardware systems and/or computing devices.Likewise, the data repositories shown can represent physical and/orlogical data storage, including, for example, storage area networks orother distributed storage systems. Moreover, in some embodiments theconnections between the components shown represent possible paths ofdata flow, rather than actual connections between hardware. While someexamples of possible connections are shown, any of the subset of thecomponents shown can communicate with any other subset of components invarious implementations.

Embodiments are also described above with reference to flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products. Each block of the flow chart illustrationsand/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams, may be implemented by computerprogram instructions. Such instructions may be provided to a processorof a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,specially-equipped computer (e.g., comprising a high-performancedatabase server, a graphics subsystem, etc.) or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions,which execute via the processor(s) of the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus, create means for implementing the actsspecified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in anon-transitory computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to operate in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the acts specified in the flow chart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also beloaded onto a computing device or other programmable data processingapparatus to cause a series of operations to be performed on thecomputing device or other programmable apparatus to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementingthe acts specified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the invention can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further implementations of theinvention.

These and other changes can be made to the invention in light of theabove Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain examples of the invention, and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theinvention can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its specific implementation, while still beingencompassed by the invention disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the invention to the specific examplesdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe invention encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also allequivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under theclaims.

To reduce the number of claims, certain aspects of the invention arepresented below in certain claim forms, but the applicant contemplatesthe various aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. Forexample, while only one aspect of the invention is recited as ameans-plus-function claim under 35 U.S.C sec. 112(f) (AIA), otheraspects may likewise be embodied as a means-plus-function claim, or inother forms, such as being embodied in a computer-readable medium. Anyclaims intended to be treated under 35 U.S.C. §112(f) will begin withthe words “means for”, but use of the term “for” in any other context isnot intended to invoke treatment under 35 U.S.C. §112(f). Accordingly,the applicant reserves the right to pursue additional claims afterfiling this application, in either this application or in a continuingapplication.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method associated with an informationmanagement system, the method comprising: receiving, by a clientcomputing device, which is a component of the information managementsystem, a first command from a user to open a file manager applicationon the client computing device; displaying, by the client computingdevice executing the file manager application, a user interface for aset of virtual machines in the information management system, whereineach of the virtual machines in the set is associated with the user;receiving, by the client computing device a second command from the userto select a virtual machine from the displayed set; retrieving, by theclient computing device, from a secondary storage computing device via astorage manager, metadata that was previously collected by the secondarystorage computing device while performing at least one storagemanagement operation relative to the selected virtual machine; anddisplaying, by the client computing device via the user interface, atleast some of the retrieved metadata for the selected virtual machine.2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one storage managementoperation was executed in response to a third command from the userreceived by the client computing device via the user interface; andwherein a representation of the selected virtual machine, based on oneor more operational parameters of the storage management operation, isstored on a secondary storage device in the information managementsystem.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one storagemanagement operation comprised at least one of a backup, an archiving,and a snapshot of the selected virtual machine; and wherein acorresponding representation of the selected virtual machine, based onone or more operational parameters of the storage management operation,is stored on a secondary storage device in the information managementsystem.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the at least one storagemanagement operation generated a representation of the selected virtualmachine, based on one or more operational parameters of the one storagemanagement operation, wherein the representation of the selected virtualmachine is stored on a secondary storage device in the informationmanagement system; wherein the method further comprises: receiving, bythe client computing device via the user interface, a third command fromthe user to restore the selected virtual machine; restoring the selectedvirtual machine, based on the representation stored in the secondarystorage device, to a host computing device in the information managementsystem, wherein the restoring operation is performed at least in part bythe storage manager; and executing the virtual machine, by the hostcomputing device, after the restore operation is completed.
 5. Aninformation management system comprising: a client computing deviceconfigured to execute a file manager application that is directed atmanaging at least one virtual machine associated with a user of theinformation management system; a secondary storage computing devicecomprising an index, wherein the index comprises metadata that waspreviously collected from at least one of a backup of the virtualmachine and an archiving of the virtual machine; and wherein the clientcomputing device, when executing the file manager application, isfurther configured to, in response to a first command received from theuser: (i) retrieve at least some of the metadata from the index on thesecondary storage computing device, and (ii) display at least some ofthe retrieved metadata to the user via a user interface presented by thefile manager application.
 6. The information management system of claim5 further comprising: a storage manager in communication with the clientcomputing device and with the secondary storage computing device; andwherein the client computing device is configured to retrieve the atleast some of the metadata via the storage manager.
 7. The informationmanagement system of claim 5 further comprising: a host computing devicefor hosting one or more virtual machines associated with the user; astorage manager in communication with the client computing device andwith the host computing device; wherein the client computing device,when executing the file manager application, is further configured to,in conjunction with the storage manager, control a selected virtualmachine in the information management system, in response to a secondcommand received from the user; and wherein the control operationcomprises at least one of: (a) shut down the selected virtual machine onthe host computing device, (b) restart the selected virtual machine onthe host computing device, (c) activate the selected virtual machine onthe host computing device, and (d) re-configure the selected virtualmachine on the host computing device.
 8. The information managementsystem of claim 5 further comprising: a host computing device forhosting one or more virtual machines associated with the user; a storagemanager in communication with the client computing device and with thehost computing device and with the secondary storage computing device;wherein the client computing device, when executing the file managerapplication, is further configured to, in conjunction with the storagemanager, perform a storage management operation relative to a selectedvirtual machine in the information management system, in response to asecond command received from the user.
 9. The information managementsystem of claim 8 wherein the storage management operation relative tothe selected virtual machine comprises at least one of: (a) a snapshotof the virtual machine created and stored in a secondary storage devicein the information management system, (b) a backup of the virtualmachine created and stored in a secondary storage device in theinformation management system, (c) an archive copy of the virtualmachine created and stored on a secondary storage device in theinformation management system, (d) the virtual machine restored from asecondary storage device in the information management system to thehost computing device, (e) a backup of a file associated with thevirtual machine created and stored in a secondary storage device in theinformation management system, (f) a backup of a folder associated withthe virtual machine created and stored in a secondary storage device inthe information management system, (g) an archive copy of a fileassociated with the virtual machine created and stored in a secondarystorage device in the information management system, (h) an archive copyof a folder associated with the virtual machine created and stored in asecondary storage device in the information management system, (i) afile associated with the virtual machine restored from a secondarystorage device to a storage device associated with the host computingdevice, and (j) a folder associated with the virtual machine restoredfrom a secondary storage device to a storage device associated with thehost computing device.
 10. A method associated with an informationmanagement system, the method comprising: receiving, by a clientcomputing device, which is a component of the information managementsystem, a first command from a user to open a file manager applicationon the client computing device; displaying, by the client computingdevice executing the file manager application, a user interface forreceiving commands from the user; receiving, by the client computingdevice via the user interface a second command from the user to create anew virtual machine in the information management system, wherein thecommand comprises one or more user-supplied parameters for the newvirtual machine, wherein the user-supplied parameters indicate a hostcomputing device in the information management that is to host the newvirtual machine; transmitting, by the client computing device to astorage manager in the information management system, one or moremessages comprising a request to create the new virtual machineaccording to the one or more user-supplied parameters; receiving, by theclient computing device from the storage manager, one or more messagescomprising a confirmation that the new virtual machine has been createdin the information management system, hosted by the host computingdevice, according to the one or more user-supplied parameters; anddisplaying, by the client computing device via the user interface, anindication that the virtual machine was successfully created.
 11. Themethod of claim 10 further comprising: in response to receiving theconfirmation that the new virtual machine has been created,transmitting, by the client computing device to the storage manager, arequest for the storage manager to store an association between the userand the new virtual machine.
 12. The method of claim 10 furthercomprising: receiving, by the client computing device via the userinterface a third command from the user to configure the new virtualmachine in the information management system, wherein the commandcomprises additional user-supplied parameters for the new virtualmachine; transmitting, by the client computing device to the hostcomputing device via the storage manager, the additional user-suppliedparameters for the new virtual machine; receiving, by the clientcomputing device from the host computing device via the storage manager,one or more messages comprising a confirmation that the new virtualmachine has been configured according to the additional user-suppliedparameters; and displaying, by the client computing device via the userinterface, an indication that the virtual machine is associated with oneor more of the additional user-supplied parameters.
 13. The method ofclaim 10 further comprising: receiving, by the client computing devicevia the user interface a third command from the user to activate the newvirtual machine in the information management system; transmitting, bythe client computing device to the host computing device via the storagemanager, the activation request for the new virtual machine; receiving,by the client computing device from the host computing device via thestorage manager, one or more messages comprising a confirmation that thenew virtual machine has been activated according to the third command;and displaying, by the client computing device via the user interface,an indication that the virtual machine has been activated according tothe third command.
 14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:receiving, by the client computing device via the user interface afourth command from the user to shut down the new virtual machine;transmitting, by the client computing device to the host computingdevice via the storage manager, the shut-down request for the newvirtual machine; receiving, by the client computing device from the hostcomputing device via the storage manager, one or more messagescomprising a confirmation that the new virtual machine has been shutdown according to the fourth command; and displaying, by the clientcomputing device via the user interface, an indication that the virtualmachine has been shut down according to the fourth command.